Biola University
The Story Behind the Work
When Kent Twitchell created The Word in 1990, he was already recognized as one of Southern California's most influential muralists. Known for his large-scale portrait murals, Twitchell sought to create a work that would resonate within the Biola community. Twitchell produced this mural with a team of Biola students who worked on it over the course of a semester.
Over the course of his career, Twitchell had painted many veiled references to Christ or biblical figures in secular spaces, but Biola presented a different opportunity. Twitchell saw this as an exciting opportunity to depict Jesus explicitly and boldly, in keeping with the university’s unabashed focus on the Word of God. The mural depicts Jesus in a peaceful pose but staggering proportion, giving a sense of both meekness and power. Executed with remarkable realism, the work demonstrates Twitchell's signature approach to portraiture, and remains, in the artist’s opinion, one of his best-executed works.
Twitchell selected a fellow artist and friend of Russian Jewish heritage as his model, an artistic decision that reflected his desire to represent Jesus’ Jewish ancestry. This choice contributed to the mural's distinctive appearance and has been part of the conversation surrounding the artwork throughout its history. The olive tree growing adjacent to the mural is part of the artist's original composition.
The title, The Word, points directly to the opening chapter of the Gospel of John: "In the beginning was the Word." The paint color used for the pages of the Bible matches the color used for the figure’s skin, visually depicting Christ as the incarnate Word of God. The double shadow on the figure implies the Trinity. The artwork is placed in the very center of campus to reflect the centrality of Christ and the Scriptures at Biola.
The mural's significance was reaffirmed through a major restoration effort completed in 2010. Years of exposure to sunlight and weather had diminished parts of the original painting, making preservation necessary. Through the collaborative work of art conservation professionals and the artist himself, the mural was carefully restored so that future generations could continue to experience the piece as it was intended.
Today, The Word remains a central symbol of Biola University's identity as a community founded on the Word of God.
