Betye Saar was born in Pasadena, California. During visits to her grandmother in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts, she watched as the fantastic Watts Towers were slowly being constructed by Simon Rodia out of broken glass, bottle tops, and other junk.

Saint-Gaudens's life story is the classic, but rarely realized, dream of the American immigrant. Born to an Irish shoemaker and his wife shortly before their relocation to New York in 1848, he began his artistic career as a cameo cutter.