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See the Watts Towers.
 The Watts Towers are a complex set of 17 separate sculptural pieces
standing 99 feet high at their tallest and built singlehandedly by
Italian immigrant Simon Rodia on a small residential lot in the
community of Watts.
Using only simple tile-setters’ tools and a window-washer’s belt, Rodia
spent more than 30 years—from 1921 to 1955—building his fantastic
monument, which he called “Nuestro Pueblo” (Our Town). The colorful
sculptures are constructed from steel pipes and rods, wrapped with wire
mesh, coated with mortar and embedded with cast-off materials—pieces of
ceramic tile, mirrors, pottery shards, sea shells, broken glass and even
a bowling ball.
“The work subsequently became a monument to the creative potential of
individuals outside of the art world, who may have lacked training or
resources but not skills, initiative or imagination,” says Professor of
Art History Frances Pohl in her book, Framing America: A Social History
of American Art. Now the smallest state park in California, the Watts
Towers are a National Historic Landmark.
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