Dominic Teneriello Monrovia and its Bears

 Step 1

For the site I am choosing Monrovia, the city I grew up in and I am from. The artwork that I will be discussing are called public treasures. The site is important to me because it is my home where I grew up and where I live. I have never lived anywhere but here. 

Step 2

1. The works I am selecting are the many bears that are placed and decorated by local artists all throughout the city. They have different makers but all have similar themes and the names are simply “Samson Bear,” with a different way it’s painted. I will list the bears photos and then the makers in step 2.

2. 

There are other as well, but these are ones I chose. Traci Loving is the artist behind the Rotary Samson bear in rotary park and many others including the Samson map bear on 415 South Ivy Avenue. Samson is always the name of the bear because it has a somewhat famous past in Monrovia. It was relocated and this caused some drama in the community. The bears are mostly concentrated on Myrtle Ave. the city’s downtown, but many can be found elsewhere including canyon park the original bear location. All the elementary schools in the area have them. Traci Loving, her website, https://www.traciloving.com/artist-traci-loving is a western painter and long time art teacher. The bears exclude all human, political, or hint of controversial themes. In fact I did not list the names of the bears because they all are so similar, it is the same bear cast every time. It is not even the actual cast of the Samson bear.

3. The Samson bears community reaction is not mixed. They are beloved by all, and are being installed at every elementary school in the city. More and more bears are being commissioned and this is good for the artists in the city. Bear news is always popular in the city and people love to watch videos of them playing in backyards. I even have my own fun bear pictures I took. However, I’m tired of the bears, and my mom is too. It does not tell us anything about the city.

Step 3

1. My mom works in the city and talked about this with the city’s art directors who commission the work. None of them have experience as an artist or an art historian. They want to commission the safest most crowd pleasing work, and to that end they have achieved it. There are 4 people on the panel and it is up for reelection soon. My mom was my reporter and told me, “They all like the Bears.” However bears are not the only thing being commissioned there are poems and electoral box decorations as well. A few murals sprinkled in also. Most of them are very light hearted and simple, which is fine. All the people on the board live in the city and try very hard to make work the citizens will enjoy. I would say no one is being represented or disrepresented. It is mostly representing an even path that is fun and enjoyable for all. 

Kira Rittgers “Beauty in Diversity”

Step 4.1, a lesson in history, but who’s reading?

The city’s commissions of bears while popular I find boring and repetitive. It also seems so sterile and inhuman. Howeveer, the city does try to show its history and California history with long bronze plaques that describe and honor certain groups or people. For example, Maryrose Mendoza created a plaque showing how Asian American railroad workers and their descendants chose Monrovia as a city to settle in because it was a town of conscious draft dodgers. Even before the war many Japanese Americans came here to grow strawberries, I never knew this. These plaques I think are very cool and we should make more of them, but I really think we should make larger artworks instead of the plaques since they are very wordy. A plaque that is high up on the street that no one reads while the bears are front and center in the sidewalk. I believe the history is more important, but only if people take the time to learn about it. The plaques are pretty forgettable which is unfortunate.

Maryrose Mendoza, “Monrovia Pioneers”

Step 4.2 the proposal

The proposal is simple, no more bear commissions we have enough, ant least one art historian or artist on the committee, and lean into the plaques and history of the city more. I believe this would be done best by creating large murals or sculptures, or small ones. The murals can show Japanese Americans working alongside Mexican Americans, showing a strong message of diversity and an important lesson in our city’s history. I think we should include experimental works as well, not simply the safest possible work. However I know that this can be risky as well. In conclusion I think we should create more exciting artworks that help tell the history of the city instead of simply creating bears over and over again.