L.A.’s Watts Towers have a lot to teach us about ourselves

The first time you see them you cannot believe your eyes. You’re driving through one of the bleakest urban ghettos in America, the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, and there against the horizon is a collection of fantastic metal structures. They seem completely out of place and other-worldly. And then, as you draw near, you discover that they are totally covered with the wildest mosaics.

Photo by Yevgenia Watts, Flickr Creative Commons

What the heck is going on here?

The Watts Towers is the largest work of art on the planet that was built by one person, alone. That person was Simon Rodia, a tiny, illiterate Italian immigrant who worked in construction. In 1921, Rodia decided he wanted to “do something big.” He bought a small lot in Watts near the train station so people could see his work. And for the next 33 years he spent every moment of his free time building the Towers. He used no scaffolding, no power tools, no welding, and no bolts.

The Watts Towers are challenging on several levels. Let’s face it — what kind of a nut spends 34 years of his life building something bizarre and useless? Yet on the other hand — what a magnificent achievement! Rodia wanted to do something big, and by God, he did it. The Towers are breathtakingly beautiful and many people find them spiritually inspiring. They are the embodiment of passion and individuality, and once you have seen them it is hard to stop thinking about them.

Rodia also challenges our notions of who is an artist. He had no education and no artistic training. He was a poor tile setter who made use of scrap materials to build something enormous and utterly unique. He may have been influenced by festival towers he saw in Italian villages, but what he built was quite different. Where did that vision come from?

There are two lessons to be drawn from the Watts Towers. First, they show us what passion and vision and thinking big and persistence and focus and, yes, obsession can accomplish. How many of us long for some of that passion in our lives? For the opportunity to make something marvelous happen? To leave a unique and beautiful legacy? Perhaps we need to spend more time discovering our inner Simon Rodia.

But not everyone is a Rodia. And that’s where the second lesson comes in. The Watts Towers would not still be standing were it not for a team of dedicated art students and conservationists who fought to preserve it. When Rodia decided the work was complete in 1954, he gave the Towers and the lot to a neighbor and left L.A., never to return. Five years later, the city threatened to demolish the Towers because they were deemed unsafe. It was the preservationists who recognized the value of the Towers and fought to preserve them, arranging a test that proved the Towers could withstand 10,000 pounds of pressure.

Even when an achievement is as lonely and idiosyncratic as the Towers, it still often takes a team to keep it alive. So yes, we should get in touch with our own inner Rodias. But we should also be looking for the Rodias around us: the often overlooked creative geniuses whose work we can support, appreciate, and help to preserve.

Next time you are in LA, go and see the Watts Towers. They will change you.

Photo by Jason Hickey, Flickr Creative Commons