Born on March 2, 1973, in Springfield Missouri, Kris Kuksi grew up in neighboring Kansas. He spent his youth in a rural setting along with a blue-collar, working mother, two significantly older brothers and an absent father. In the absence of external distractions, Kuksi combined childhood toys including lego, spaceships and castles, and with materials such as bricks from a dilapidated barn to create dioramas and landscapes.[9] A lack of stimulation, from either technology in the form of television or from social interaction with other people fostered Kuksi’s imagination, allowing it to develop and grow. The artists has described how, living in an isolated, rural part of Kansas, there was little external stimulation or distraction and he “[drew and ran] amuck outside imagining worlds within my head.”[10]