Watts Towers

Thanksgiving was wonderful. I didn’t spend it with my immediate family. I spent it with friends that have grown to be family in Los Angeles. You know, I had to start telling my mother in August that I was not going to be home for Thanksgiving.  It seems she was okay with it. Me and another friend left Detroit around 4  PM and got to L.A. by about 8 PM. Our mutual friend and her daughter met us at the airport and from there it was several days of eating, drinking, playing, talking and just enjoying each other’s company.

I didn’t partake in the touristy things and I usually do not when I go to other cities…except one. We visited the Watts Towers.

Simon Rodia took 31 years to develop this iconic piece of art. Reading through the literature it seemed that Rodia had a dream to do something great with his life and in his forties, he began to create the towers. Before visiting it, I thought that the towers consisted of two towers only, but it is several structures that were nothing more than a spiritual experience for me.  It of course got me thinking about what I am doing with my own life. We all want to be great or do something great, but so many times we are not doing this for ourselves, but for others to call us great. Rodia did not do this to be great in others eyes, but in his own and in doing that he created a piece of art that all of us can enjoy, even this many years later.

There are things I want to do in my life with my art and with certain projects that I need to go within myself and really look at the reasons why I want to them. I want to be like Rodia and in whatever I do, do it in service of my self and my community.

More about the towers:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 6th, 2011 at 9:48 am and is filed under Art and Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.