WILL ROGERS MONUMENT

Will Rogers Monument"August 10, 2017, San Bernardino, California Theatre.  ​ Photo: Ed Fuentes  

Field Note: As the sun's light was hitting the golden hour I was near one of my favorite pieces, "Will Rogers Monument" (1998-1999) by Kent Twitchell. It is made of two portraitures; the east side shows Rogers in his performance years: the image of a cowboy looking back with wise eyes. On the west side Twitchell captured Rogers’ mischief as a political commentator. He has been quoted to  have said "I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat" and  "There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you." Imagine the witticisms from Rogers that would inspired by today’s political climate. 

I found out details about the mural itself for a 2012 post at KCET:
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The two murals, titled  "Will Rogers Monument," were profiled in the San Bernardino Sun and stated that not only did the humorist  make several appearances in the inland region, his last live performance was at the California Theatre was June 28, 1935. Rogers and his friend, aviator Wiley Post, died six weeks later when their plane crashed in Alaska.
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"Will Rogers Monument" is on two sides of the California Theatre, located at 562 West 4th Street, in San Bernardino, California. ​

lThe first design was a full profile of Rogers in cowboy gear, which according to [Kent] Twitchell was scrapped at the last moment when plans to develop a complex next door moved forward, eventually blocking the perfect wall canvas. The artist revisited his concept and decided to paint Rogers from the waist-up on the building's east and west facing exteriors, the  towering fly space of the 1928 theater.

The two images make an interesting installation by showing two sides of Rogers' career.

Based on archival photos from the Will Rogers Museum, the rope-in-hand cowboy persona speaks to Roger's vaudevillian roots. Completed in 1998, it faces the east (stage left) as if he is looking toward his home state, Oklahoma. An image of Rogers as statesman, completed in 1999, is based on a publicity shot from his radio days and resides on the west wall (stage left) facing Los Angeles and Hollywood -- where he became a multi-media figure.

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The California Theatre sits near Route 66, the mother road also known as "Will Rogers Highway" -- a fact not lost on Twitchell, who mixes his mid-western roots with social realism. "I am a regionalist and folk artist at heart," he said. "I have been accepted by the elite, so I am in that world, but not of that world."
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