The above, from a whale's perspective
(.au sound file, 176kb)
Once compared to
"Johnny Appleseed with a paint brush," Wyland created his first Whaling
Wall in July 1981 in Laguna Beach, California. The wall, featuring
life size whales, stretched 140 feet long and 26 feet high, giving
viewers a true perspective on the size, power and beauty of these marine
mammals. Dedication day for Wall #1 fell on Wyland's 25th birthday, and
since then he's painted 66 more walls in 24 U.S. States, the District of
Columbia, Canada, Mexico, France and Australia -- among them Wyland's
"Planet Ocean," a 116,00 square foot scene painted in-the-round on the
Long Beach Convention Center, and recognized as the largest mural in the
world. Wyland's goal is to complete his 100th Whaling Wall in 2011, thirty
years after his start in Laguna Beach, and presumably just in time for his
55th birthday.
Corporations and individual wealthy
clients have offered Wyland up to a half-million dollars to paint murals
on their buildings or homes, but Wyland prefers public spaces, of his own
choosing -- and he does the work for free. At a cost that can easily
exceed a quarter-million dollars for paint alone, Wyland does, however,
seek out donors for paint and needed equipment. And despite the utter
enormity of the canvas, Wyland completes the job in as little as one week
(some sites, due to location, building condition and other circumstances
may require up to five or six weeks).
Dr. Roger Payne, a whale biologist and avid admirer of Wyland,
suggests that to truly understand Wyland's accomplishment, you'd have to
imagine the process he goes through to create one of these enormous
murals..."months of negotiations regarding some wall...finally...going up
to that wall...assembling the paints, and rigging the staging, and roping
off the area below (and finding parking for the truck with all the gear,
and food for all [the]helpers)...climbing onto the staging and as it lifts
you up across...several acres of blank wall, loading the paint into your
spray gun, starting the compressor,and then, while leaning back as far as
you can (so as to have as much of an overview as possible - really out of
the question, given that you are pressed right against the wall) deciding
what the design will be. (Wyland never knows what he is going to paint
until he is on site with his spray gun in hand). And as you start to
paint, imagine dealing with windstorms, and rainstorms, and lightning, and
blisteringly hot days, and having to come down to use the bathroom or to
eat (he uses a cellular phone so he can talk with people while he
paints....)" Yet Wyland manages all this, along with nagging details too
numerous to mention, all the while working against the constant pressure
of daily attention from the press and on-lookers -- and a dedication day
ceremony that may be a week or less away. "Yet," says Payne, "one of the
most delightful things about Wyland is that during all this madness and
pressure he seems to be the person having the most fun."
And why does Wyland range the world
over, scouting out suitable flat spaces on which to paint, free of charge,
another life-size portrayal of whales or dolphins or other aquatic life?
"I first started painting whales and dolphins because I wanted to show
their grace and beauty and maybe do something to help save them," the
artist says. "But I've personally grown to see a much larger picture -- to
save the whales is great... but if we can't save the oceans, we're not
going to be able to save the whales, and we're not going to be able to
save ourselves."
A fan of Jacques Cousteau's undersea adventures on television,
an admirer of Greenpeace activists, an avid diver himself, Wyland wanted
to do something important to help preserve sealife, something that would
count. "My method was, and still is, to draw attention to the delicate
beauty of these creatures by painting them and sharing my art with
others."
While finishing his first mural at Laguna Beach, Wyland
"realized the kind of impact it was having on the people who were looking
at it. There was nothing like it in Orange County, or anywhere else for
that matter. The public's response was just fantastic, and this was when I
decided to paint 100 of these Whaling Walls throughout the world."
"So What's the Story?"
Wyland has scheduled another of his spectacular, new-mural-every-week tours, a seven-city blitz, from August 26, 1997 through October 13, 1997. A new mural will begin each Tuesday and be dedicated on the following Monday in: Toronto, Bloomington (Minnesota), Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland and Detroit. Wyland is still scouting out the possible sites and looking for sponsors, both of which he'll undoubtedly soon find.
I'd suggest two likely possibilities for shaping this story.
Possibility one: I interview Wyland soon, gather photos and background, provide basic story -- and highlight this Midwest tour, letting readers know this whirlwind is about to descend on the Great Lakes region (and that they can watch the miracle worker with their own eyes).
Possibility two: we actually cover some part of
these Great Lakes murals, recording the event, Wyland in action, from
start to finish....profiling the man, the mystique, the magic...and
whatever else falls out along the way. This could be a multi-part,
watch-the-magic-as-it-happens-weekly story
Wyland, the artist, the Foundation, the gallery, all of it
together, have a fine Website, by the way -- and we could link to that
site and provide other interesting Art, Whales, Oceanographic,
Environmental links.
Bruce Dobler
5841 Darlington Rd.
Pittsburgh, PA 15217
(412) 521-2559 (H)
(412) 624-6542 (W)
bdobler+@pitt.edu