There exists almost no information about the life of this artist. His work was discovered by Dr Tarmo Pasto, a psychologist and a professor of art at California State College at Sacramento, who became known because of his involvement with Martin Ramirez. John Podhorsky was probably an inmate of one of the institutions in which Pasto was active. We only know that Podhorsky worked as a carpenter in California during the 1950s. Most of the - only few - existing drawings represent imaginary architectures, bridges, houses, and also machines or human figures of undetermined sex. The drawings are often accompanied by delusional comments.