Artwork Detail
The Aviator
Artist: Cody, John
Object Date: 2000
Medium: Serpentine stone
Department(s): Fire
Supervisorial District: 3
About the Artwork:
About the Artist:
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The mission of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture is to advance arts, culture, and creativity throughout LA County. We fulfill our mission by providing services and support in areas including grants and technical assistance for nonprofit organizations; professional development opportunities; commissioning civic artworks and managing the County’s civic art collection; implementing countywide arts education initiatives; research and evaluation; career pathways in the creative economy; free community programs; and cross sector creative strategies that address civic issues. This work is framed by the County’s Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative and a longstanding commitment to fostering access to the arts.
Sculptor John Cody created this monument, The Aviator, for County aerial firefighters at the request of his friend Karen Langley. Karen’s son, Jeffrey Langley, was a firefighter paramedic with the Los Angeles County Fire Department who lost his life in 1993 in a helicopter accident during a rescue attempt. Jeffrey Langley was also a prominent safety advocate and worked tirelessly to raise money for additional practice equipment and training time for County firefighter air operations personnel. Following his death his friends and colleagues continued his efforts and a stationary helicopter was installed on top of a tower at the Pacoima facility for training. The sculpture sits in front of this tower.
Born in 1948, John Cody spent his youth in Virginia and became interested in stone sculpture as a teenager after volunteering at an indigenous archaeological site in South Carolina. The stone carvings he helped excavate fascinated him and he soon began sculpting in the same medium. Cody moved west when he was eighteen and arrived in southern California in 1967, first settling in Solvang. It was here that he began quarrying serpentine stone, a material that remains his favorite. In 1976, Cody moved to Los Olivos and later opened an art gallery there in a former blacksmith’s shop. His public commissions include works at the Santa Maria Natural History Museum, the Santa Maria Courthouse, and Knotts Berry Farm.