One Man’s Art . . .

It is amazing how an “artist” can sculpt, build, paint, or otherwise create unadulterated junk and then have it acclaimed as “art” by the cultural savants among us. Such is the case with Sam Rodia’s Watts Towers (“Watts Towers: Latest Goal Is to Save Creator’s Details” by Leon Whiteson, May 26).

When I first saw Watts Towers in the 1950s, my reaction was that it was all a put-on and I couldn’t figure out what all the shouting was about. Rodia’s “masterpiece” is one of the biggest and slickest hoaxes of all time. Leon Whiteson called it right: Watts Towers is made of broken bottles, pottery shards, seashells and bits of iron--held together by chicken wire smeared with ordinary builder’s cement.

In other words, junk.

LANNY R. MIDDINGS

San Ramon