Thornton Dial honed his talent for making things through his various day jobs, which included welding railroad cars and building homes such as the factory houses depicted in Old Projects. To create this piece, Dial used tin, cloth, nails, wood, and other found materials not only because they were readily available but also because of the stories they told: “Everything that we pick up means something to us. So these are things that come from sawmills and the things that we do work with in the United States. The stuff in it is the meaning of the piece,” Dial said.