Picture Perfect : Pasadena Mural Draws Public, Obsesses Students Painting It

In June, the idea seemed simple enough: Have art students decorate a temporary fence at a construction site, with a master of mural painting to teach them.

Today, true to the style of outdoor muralist Kent Twitchell, the fence at the corner of Pasadena Avenue and California Boulevard in Pasadena has become intricate, dramatic and brilliantly colored. It is an attention-grabber that has motorists slamming brakes, waving and yelling.

It is also three weeks overdue and far from finished, requiring long hours of work at a noisy, dirty intersection--conditions that in no way deter about 40 budding artists who work on it from early morning until midnight.

Despite delays and difficulties, the mural has the enthusiastic support of administrators at Pasadena City College, who enlisted Twitchell to teach the unusual class, and officials at Huntington Memorial Hospital, which is financing the project.

‘Just Wonderful’

“What started off as a good idea has become something just wonderful,” said Linda Malm, who chairs the PCC art department and initiated the project. “Look how it’s bloomed!”

Twitchell was supposed to teach a six-week summer session at PCC. Students began by photographing scenes in Pasadena, then incorporating the pictures into a design to cover the 8-by-316-foot fence.

The fence surrounds the construction site for Huntington Hospital’s new main building, which is expected to take up to two years to complete. Hospital officials wanted something decorative, since the fence will be in place for so long, and agreed to pay for paint and supplies.

When construction is finished, college and hospital officials plan to auction sections of the mural to raise money for special projects.

Although the semester ended July 29, Twitchell agreed to continue teaching and directing the project until it is completed, which may take another week.

Twitchell, 45, who is best known for several gigantic artworks in Los Angeles, gained his most fame for his “Freeway Lady” on a building facing the Hollywood Freeway. The white-haired woman with her afghan floating off into space was painted over in 1986, amid protests.

He also painted a woman’s face on a Harbor Freeway underpass for the 1984 Olympics, a six-story portrait of artist Ed Ruscha on Hope Street and a blue-hued bride and groom on a building on Broadway.

In a cramped, hot shed on Pasadena Avenue where he mixes paint, advises students and answers questions seven days a week and most nights, Twitchell was cheerful about the problems that have arisen.

“There are so many things that can happen, especially when you’re not doing just graphic stuff, but fine art,” Twitchell said. “Suddenly you get into something that really has some possibilities, and you would rather go with quality than say, ‘Wait a minute, we’re two days behind schedule.’ It’s better to say, ‘We’ll take an extra week here, a few extra days there.’ ”

‘Willing to Sacrifice’

Twitchell described fine art as “personal--and that’s what makes it different from commercial art. Suddenly something begins to happen, and we’re all willing to sacrifice our time to make it happen.”

What happened, he said, is that students became so engrossed in the mural that they insisted on making it more complex, “and, of course, a lot better. They had more commitment to this than I anticipated. And they wanted to do a lot more detail than I thought they would.”

Where Twitchell had planned to use only basic colors with four values (shades ranging from dark to light in each color), the mural now has more than 20 colors in 10 values. Several of the scenes are so intricate that they have a dappled look, and some are even pointillist, a style of painting with small dots that was developed by early Impressionists.

Among the vivid scenes are the Huntington Hotel framed by the Colorado Street bridge and a sweep of morning glories, the Gamble House, City Hall and its fountain, sculptures at the Norton Simon Museum, a church’s stained-glass window, a tree-shaded block of Prospect Boulevard and the Green Hotel. They are interspersed with panels of huge roses.

The project has been complicated by dust and dirt blowing around the construction site, by tarpaulins that provide shade in the hot sun but distort color, and by the nightly task of setting up and taking down lights.

‘Absolutely Beautiful’

Still, the mural is fulfilling Twitchell’s hope, expressed when the class started, that it would be “something absolutely beautiful that will blow Pasadena’s mind.”

Passers-by honk, wave and shout encouragement. People come to look and ask questions.

Twitchell said: “It’s been very good for students to see that they can have a major impact on people’s lives with their art. It’s such a shot in the arm to have people get out of their cars and come around and talk about how much this means to them.”

Police Lt. Chris Hagerty said at least 10 people asked him in one day to find out if he could get a similar mural for a fence around a new police facility at Walnut Street and Garfield Avenue.

Hagerty said he asked Twitchell and was disappointed that there was not enough time to begin such a project.

“So many people are impressed,” Hagerty said.

One passer-by donated the electrical equipment needed for night painting, and a nearby doctor’s office is providing the electricity.

Surprise Offering

Twitchell tells of another surprise offering: “This big guy came running across the street, and if I was casting a movie of a motorcycle gang member, it would be him.

“He yelled, ‘Are you responsible for this?’ and I felt like saying, ‘Er, do you like it?’ But I said, ‘Yes,’ and he handed me a $50 bill and said, ‘Go buy these people some beer and pizza.’ I did, and we still have $30 left.”

Several people have asked to buy portions of the fence, Twitchell said. “One man wanted to buy the City Hall panel one night and take it with him--not wait two years; he wanted it right now!”

Since enrolling in the PCC session in mid-June, some students have gone on vacation and returned to continue painting, some work full time at regular jobs and paint every night, and some even abandoned paying jobs to help paint the mural.

The crew includes some teen-age hospital volunteers, known as candy stripers. Strangers have asked to paint just for the experience of working with Twitchell.

Paints With Broken Leg

Marietta Cornell, a cosmetologist and art student by day, paints each night with her broken leg strapped in a brace.

“Pretty funny, me doing a hospital scene,” she said as she worked on the mural’s centerpiece scene of Huntington Hospital and PCC.

“I’m doing this because I’m an artist, and I think this is a very important gift to the people of Pasadena,” Cornell said. “People stop all the time, asking how we go about this, and it’s just wonderful.”

Dian Allison, a nurse in the burn unit at Los Angeles County-USC Hospital, said, as she put finishing touches on a picture of Pasadena Playhouse: “My co-workers will be glad when this is finished and my mind comes back. I’m putting so much energy into the mural.”

Eric Pruitt, an art student at Azusa Pacific University, said he gave up his part-time summer job in a pizza parlor to work on the mural without pay. As he applied an intricate pattern to a portion showing Rodin’s sculpture of The Thinker, Pruitt said: “I gave up a lot of fun with friends, and pretty much gave up church on Sundays. And this is where I want to be.”

T-Shirts Sold

Graphic artist Bonnie Nelson designed T-shirts commemorating the fence-painting that have been snapped up by admirers.

Nelson said: “In the 25 years I’ve been in the art field, I’ve never seen one group with this much commitment to a project, and they aren’t even getting paid. I’ve learned more about painting concepts for a wall mural here than in all my art classes.”

Twitchell, a slender, agile man who says he snacks on health food all day and night to maintain his energy, said the fence has to be finished soon because he must begin a mural he has been commissioned to paint for a Home Savings building in Irwindale.

“I think we may end this with some quiet, tired celebration,” he said.