Holley had a troubled childhood. His Mother had 27 children and he spent rough years living in foster homes. Holley worked as a short-order cook for years. In 1979 one of Holley’s sisters lost two children in a house fire. He went into a depression.

He made tombstones for the children because the family could not afford to buy them. This proved an epiphany and Holley felt he had a calling to make art. A local foundry was the supplier for industrial sandstone and Holley began to create sandstone sculptures.

He lived a distance behind the Birmingham Airport in a wooded area and created thousands of sculptures from the detritus of society-old hangers, clothes, tires, scrap metal, etc. Nothing Holley created is without meaning and he is anxious to explain the stories, philosophies and issues of his massive body of work.