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February 12 – Happy Birthday, Simon Rodia

February 12, 2015

nPostednon February 12, 2015

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nHenworked on his art piece for 33 years. He built with his two hands anlandmark that is written up in tourist guide books, a place peoplenvisit and photograph and talk about:

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nThenWatts Towers.

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nWatts,na neighborhood of Los Angeles, is known for two things. One is riots,nbecause there was a horrible, violent 6-day riot in 1965. The othernthing is much more wonderful: the Watts Towers!

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SimonnRodia was born Sabato Rodia on this date in 1879 in Serino, Italy. Henemigrated with his brother to the United States when he was just 15,nfirst living in Pennsylvania, then Washington state and finallynCalifornia. He worked as a construction worker and as a tile mason,nplus the occasional odd job. Eventually, in 1920, he settled innWatts.

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nWhyndid he start building towers?

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nWhyndoes anyone make any sort of art?

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Apparently,nRodia started small, constructing in his yard a single tower of scrapnsteel rebar and his own recipe of a sort of concrete, and decoratingnit with found objects. He had no overall design plan, and no specialnequipment. He just used a few hand tools and just started building.nNeighborhood children started bringing him bits of broken pottery andnsoft drink bottles.

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nRodiancalled his sculpture Nuestro Pueblo, which means “our town”nin Spanish (even though he was Italian!).
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nBynthe time Rodia was done building Nuestro Pueblo, there were 17ninterconnected towers decorated with glass, ceramic tiles, seanshells, figurines, mirrors, and china.

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nWhatnwas the reaction from the neighborhood, and from the City of LosnAngeles? Did people immediately love Rodia’s art piece?

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nWell,nsad to say, but there was a lot of vandalism, and the City keptnbadgering Rodia to get permits. Eventually Rodia quit-claimed hisnproperty to a neighbor, moved to the Bay Area to live with a sister,nand never returned to Watts.

At that point, the City of LosnAngeles decided to condemn the entire structure and ordered itndestroyed. However, an actor and a film editor quickly bought thenproperty and worked to try to preserve it. They publicized thentowers, and there was opposition to LA’s plan to demolish them comingnin from around the world. Architects, artists, and activists werenamong the many people who joined in the effort to save Rodia’sntowers.

Finally, Los Angeles relented: if the towers could passnan engineering test, they wouldn’t be demolished.

nNow there is a Watts Towers Art Center,nthe towers themselves are designated a California HistoricalnLandmark, and there is even a school named after Rodia. Now thensurrounding community respects the towers, and there is littlenattempt at vandalism. Even the Northridge earthquake did littlendamage to the Watts Towers!

nTherenare only 61 artists, composers, writers, and other famous people fromnall over the world on the cover of the Beatles’ iconic Sgt. Pepper’snLonely Hearts Club Band album cover, but one of them is Simon Rodian(next to the top right-hand Bob Dylan).

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