Wyland, whose name begins with "w",
is an artist from Laguna Beach who likes whales. Whales are one of his favorite
subjects and he has paid tribute to them on a massive scale, unlike any other
human on the planet.
While we've not had the opportunity to meet and
interview Wyland, we spoke with his PR department. Wyland picks and chooses his
projects to best utilize limited time, but what we've wanted to know is his
connection with the sea. Dubbed, Artist of the Sea, Wyland is not shy about his
commitment to ecology. Impacting California's interest in whales through images
and education, there are now many
California whale
watching tours, with some may possibly born out of inspiration
from kids and adults who have noticed these murals at California
beaches.
"We have reached a point of globalization
in which everything we do affects someone, or something, else. Call it the age
of interconnectedness. And nothing symbolizes our dependence upon one another
more than the interconnected state of our planet's water." - Wyland.
Wyland is known around the globe for his
Whaling Walls and for his commercial success selling oceanic-themed art.
Sculptures, paintings, prints, collectibles and even a California license plate
promote conservation themes in a tribute to the giants of the sea, as well as
dolphins and other sea creatures.. An accomplished painter, sculptor,
photographer, writer, and scuba diver, he has traveled around the world for more
than 25 years, documenting and interpreting the ocean. While his commercial
success has financed his nonprofit efforts, giving back to the community is
something Wyland excels at. Wyland's famous whale tail license plate has
raised over $7 million for coastal conservation in California alone, providing
one example of his ability to do things on a large scale, much like his friends,
the whales.
Wyland's Whaling Wall mural project—a series of more than 90 life-size marine
murals that spans 12 nations on four continents and is viewed by an estimated 1
billion people annually, is a campaign to promote conservation. In California,
some spectacular Whaling Walls can be viewed as you travel from San Diego to
Long Beach, Redondo Beach to San Francisco. If you are not aware of
Wyland's Whaling Walls, coming upon one of these massive paintings can be a
huge, delightful surprise. Perhaps the most spectacular example sits in the Long
Beach Harbor at the Long Beach Arena.
The Marine Michelangelo has galleries
throughout the United States, and has hosted Wyland's Ocean World on the
Discovery Channel's Animal Planet and Wyland: Visions of the Sea on Animal
Planet.
To meet Wyland, you have to keep up on his
schedule. Wyland often attracts media interest during his appearances―you
can't help but notice when he's out painting one of his works on building. The
event usually includes student participation from local schools so that kids can
grasp the scale of these oceanic mammals as they are given a brush and some
paint to add to a huge whaling wall. It would be quite an honor to drive by a
Guinness World Record mural and be able to see that you helped make that, even
if only with a few strokes of a brush. That's the kind of vesting Wyland is so
good at and why his so successful in his odyssey to honor the sea. |
