The 5 Cs of Arizona, on a tower. Plus, a bonus lizard.
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Noah's Art
Noah Purifoy
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| "I do not wish to be an artist. I only wish that art enables me to be."- Noah Purifoy, 1963 |
Artist Noah Purifoy spent the last 15 years of his life sculpting junked materials into art in the Mohave desert. As I walked the 10 acres of assemblage, I considered what each item might have looked like when they were created -- before many years of exposure to the desert.
Nuestro Pueblo
Watts Towers
Simon Rodia began building his Nuestro Pueblo from steel rebar, wire mesh, and other collected scraps in 1921. Rodia abruptly quit building and decorating, gave his property to a neighbor, and left town 33 years later. After Rodia departed and his house that sat under the towers burned down, the City of Los Angeles condemned the structure and ordered that it be torn down. Actor Nicholas King and film editor William Cartwright purchased the property with intent to save it from destruction. They petitioned the city to perform a test to establish the safety of the towers. The city agreed and tests were performed in 1959 in which attempts were made to pull the towers down. The towers did not give under the pull of 10,000 pounds of lateral force. The towers were permitted to stand. Ironically, the towers have been cared for by the city that once condemned them since 1975.
The towers are currently undergoing restoration that is expected to be finished in mid 2020. However, tours from outside the fence are still available during the restoration.
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| Rodia was only 4 foot 10 inches tall. |
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| Rodia's towers are the masts of a ship. Step back and you can see that the property is shaped like a boat. |
$100,000 Tumbleweed
In 2007, the City Council of Chandler, Arizona, approved spending $100,000 on a tumbleweed for a park-and-ride lot -- a metal tumbleweed created by local artist Joan Waters.
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| “I would have thought it would have been bigger.” - Jeff Weninger, Council Member |
