The Clayton Rippey Collection
Professor Emeritus and Artist Clayton Rippey
Clayton Rippey graduated with an A.B. and an M.A. in Fine Art from Stanford University in 1949. That Fall he began his career in Bakersfield, teaching art classes at the high school and at Bakersfield College. Both institutions were located on the campus of Bakersfield High School at the time.
In 1956 the college finished construction on the Panorama Campus where he transferred, serving as chairman of the art department and retiring from BC in 1980. Clayton is the one who first “embodied” the Renegade Knight, designing and building the mosaic standing knight which has welcomed people to the BC campus at the Panorama and Haley corner since 1956.
In 1956 the college finished construction on the Panorama Campus where he transferred, serving as chairman of the art department and retiring from BC in 1980. Clayton is the one who first “embodied” the Renegade Knight, designing and building the mosaic standing knight which has welcomed people to the BC campus at the Panorama and Haley corner since 1956.
A reception and show of his work honored him at the Levan Center in 2011. Annual exhibits displaying his work were shown at the Cezanne Gallery owned by Maris and Todd Madigan. He was a prolific painter, muralist, ceramicist, sculptor, and designer.
In addition to his teaching, Clayton produced a body of art that has been represented in numerous exhibits. The depth of his work is recognized in both public and private collections throughout the nation and in Europe. Although he has been honored with a great many awards over the years, one of his most treasured was the Bakersfield College Foundation’s Distinguished Service Award, presented to him at a banquet on May 4, 1999.
“Art of the Knight”
By Rob Parsons
For more than fifty years the silent sentinel has stoically guarded the northwest entrance to the Bakersfield College campus. Standing on the bluffs at the corner of Haley Street and Panorama Drive, the ten foot tall thousand-pound Renegade Knight surveys the terrain below for invading Monarchs, Marauders, Warriors, Pirates, Raiders, Lancers, Vaqueros, Corsairs, Cougars, Bulldogs, Rams, Falcons, Griffons, and other rival mascots—human and animal, real and mythical. No discussion of the history of the Renegade name and Knight mascot would be complete without including this enduring, iconic and influential mosaic image gracing the Bakersfield College Pylon.
Clayton Rippey, retired BC Art Professor, in a 2008 oral history interview for the BC Archives described how he was asked to design a symbol for a renegade knight soon after the college moved “up on the hill.” Possibly based on his earlier sketch, “Guardian,” Rippey said he “drew up” a full color model for the final mosaic design. The College and Associated Students paid for the materials, including the tiles that Rippey personally selected. The shop department built a metal frame and poured concrete into it to make a flat surface. Rippey spent a full summer in a room in the Art Building cementing the small, individually shaped tile pieces into place. The shop people used forklifts to transport the heavy mosaic and place it on the pylon. A bronze plaque was attached nearby reading: “Presented by the Associated Students of Bakersfield College 1956-1957.
The standing-at-attention pose of the Rippey mosaic became the popular model for logos, seals, emblems, letterheads—any “official” representation of the Renegade Knight theme. In the 1960’s the success of the pylon mosaic stimulated more mosaic murals on various campus buildings including Science and Engineering, Fine Arts, Humanities, and others. Some of these suffered from weathering and neglected maintenance and were taken down, but they possibly inspired the Huddle mural painted in the Gym in the 1980’s. The BC Renegade Knight Mosaic attracted the attention of the Porterville College Pirates who commissioned Rippey to design and construct the twelve-foot diameter circular pirate-themed mosaic now in the floor of the Student Center. Rippey also painted murals in Valley Plaza Mall and several other business buildings in Bakersfield.
Porterville College Mosaic Rendering C. Rippey
Rippey’s public art mural at Valley Plaza
Bakersfield College is receiving a new collection of Rippey’s painting in Fall of 2024. Check back in to see photos of those pieces and more information about Clayton Rippey’s life and work!
