From the art center he helped to create in South-Central Los Angeles, at the base of Simon Rodia's famous Watts Towers landmark art assembly, Noah Purifoy saw his neighborhood go up in flames.
In an interview two years before Purifoy's death, The Tavis Smiley Show producer Roy Hurst talked with the artist about his legacy of "protest art" and the legitimacy of the assemblage art movement.
The 86-year-old Purifoy died March 5 at his sprawling "art ranch" in the desert of Southern California near Joshua Tree an arid sculpture garden where he created art from society's castoff junk.