Animal Force and Machine Force

Ray Boynton

This large mural in three parts is a study in contrast between traditional and modern modes of power and progress. To the left Boynton illustrates traditional animal power in a scene dominated by horses (the man aside one of them is Gordon Langdon, the painter of "California Agriculture and Industry" directly opposite). To the right of the doorway can be seen hydroelectric power, generators, steam shovels and other examples of the modem shift to machinery to reshape our world. (It's interesting to contrast that with John Langley Howard's "California Industrial Scenes" opposite and its depiction of how machinery used in mining ravaged the California landscape.) 

In the middle - usually obscured by the open doors to the elevator lobby - depict ripe grapes in a vineyard being picked by a man on the right and a woman on the left. The woman is Boynton's wife, Beryl, herself an accomplished artist. Above them in the archway are three birds, and above the door itself, a large pair of blue eyes between the sun and a crescent moon that are "watching over" everything below. (The eyes are sometimes, although incorrectly, described as Rivera's.) 

A small area in the middle of Boynton's work commemorates the Tower. It was painted by Helen Barbara Clement (1912-1997), an assistant to both Maxine Albro and Gordon Langdon, (she appears herself in several of the murals).