Robert Wyland jumped onto the cherry picker with the hustle of a man used to heavy demands on his time. A moment later, the famous artist was 30 feet atop his “Whaling Wall,” on the Del Mar Fairgrounds' newest building, spray-painting the eye of a life-size gray whale.
PEGGY PEATTIE / Union-Tribune
Painter Robert Wyland worked on his "Whaling Wall" last week at the San Diego County Fair on the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Wyland is the self-proclaimed "artist of the sea."
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“You got to work fast when you're working for free. I do all this for free,” Wyland said of the giant mural of whales that he's been painting during the past two weeks at the San Diego County Fair, and of the 92 others he's done worldwide since his first in Laguna Beach a quarter-century ago.
It is true that Wyland, who answers to his surname, donates days – sometimes weeks – to the whaling walls, which he has painted from Anchorage to Yamagata to foster awareness of the need to protect marine life. San Diego is now home to three walls.
Yet it's also true that inside the building next to the one he is painting is the fair gift shop, chock-full of Wyland-licensed T-shirts, board games and stuffed animals. And beyond the gift shop is a temporary Wyland gallery where prints of his work sell for $2,500, sculptures for $4,500 and original paintings for as much as $34,000.
Such a paradox is common in Wyland's world, where the self-proclaimed “artist of the sea” is both hailed by environmentalists and derided by art critics. Marketers, meanwhile, are in awe of the 49-year-old's success in parlaying depictions of whales, dolphins and manatees into an enduring brand.
Both Wyland the man and Wyland the brand are front and center at this year's fair, themed “Ride the Tide to Fun.” In addition to the whale mural, Wyland designed the fair's logo and some merchandise free of charge. He will be on hand for several events at the fair, which runs through July 4.
“He is the main event, if you will,” said Timothy J. Fennell, chief executive of the Del Mar Fairgrounds. “He has the ability to attract people to the fair who might not otherwise come.”
PEGGY PEATTIE / Union-Tribune
Artist Robert Wyland got some help on a separate wall mural project at the San Diego County Fair.
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Wyland's gallery at the fair – for which he pays no rent – did “unbelievably well” during the fair's first week, said Kevin Morrison, general manager for Wyland Galleries. Morrison said several paintings and sculptures with price tags of more than $4,000 already had sold.
The 110-employee Wyland Worldwide grosses more than $100 million annually, with revenues coming from 34 galleries and dozens of licensing agreements for everything from sports equipment to hospital scrubs and baby apparel.
A Wyland-themed hotel is scheduled to open next month in Honolulu, with others under consideration for San Diego and Las Vegas. The hotels – loosely modeled after the upscale W Hotels chain – will have a marine motif, and Wyland's art will be prominently displayed.
Bank checks with Wyland's renderings of marine life are among his best-sellers. Wyland has lent his name and images to all sorts of businesses, including Disney and the Chicken Soup series of inspirational books.
Wyland maintains a strong San Diego presence with galleries in Seaport Village and La Jolla. And in addition to the wall he's painting at the fair, his whaling walls can be found on the San Diego National Bank on Kettner Boulevard and at the Mission Beach Plunge swimming pool. Three other San Diego whaling walls, one at the fairgrounds and two others at Sea World, were victims of teardowns or renovation.
Wyland, a Detroit native who claims undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau as his hero, has said he first became enamored with the ocean during a visit to Southern California as a 14-year-old. While gazing out at the ocean from Laguna Beach, so the legend goes, he witnessed two whales spouting.
“I always say if you see a whale, it changes you,” Wyland told The Los Angeles Times last year. “The whale became a focal point of my art.”
A decade after that first visit he was living as a “starving artist” in Laguna and painting his first whale mural on a wall in the Hotel Laguna parking lot. By the mid-1980s, Wyland was a millionaire with homes and galleries in Orange County and Hawaii.
His whaling wall projects began to take on the air of a traveling circus, with several assistants helping him with the murals and others setting up stands and selling merchandise.
Critics have referred to Wyland as the undersea Thomas Kinkade, the “Painter of Light,” whose sentimental landscapes and street scenes can be purchased via franchised galleries in malls nationwide.
Wyland and his public relations staff bristle at those comparisons and at times take pains to paint his commercial success as an unintentional byproduct of his love for children and the ocean.
His most important work, he says, is the Wyland Foundation, a charity with a $500,000 budget aimed at making conservation a part of school curriculums. He takes nearly a month out of every year to go on a “clean water tour,” an educational caravan. This year's tour will be along the Mississippi River in October and culminate in New Orleans.
“He has a charismatic approach to caring for the ocean,” said Nigella Hillgarth, director of the Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla.
“He's willing to give so much of his time – that's what makes him exceptional.”
What is perhaps most exceptional about Wyland is his ability to create a dynamic in which he is simultaneously giving on behalf of the Wyland Foundation and receiving on behalf of Wyland Worldwide.
“The reason (the business) works is because I don't focus on it,” the artist said during a break last week from working on his mural.
However, 15 minutes earlier, he pointed out: “I'm different than most artists I've met. I think about my brand 100 years after I'm gone.”
Wyland's branding starts with a well-honed “creation story” and continues through the environmental creed he lives by and the iconic whale prominent in almost everything he does, said Patrick Hanlon, a Minneapolis-based marketing expert and author of “Primal Branding.”
“He has connected with people and been able to create a community centered around his belief system,” Hanlon said.
All of Wyland's commercial success, however, has done nothing to sway the fine art community.
Hugh Davies, director of the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, said the museum would not accept a Wyland painting, even if one were donated.
“He's a brilliant marketer; my hat's off to him for that,” said Davies. “But he's not an artist whose work will be of lasting value.”
Derek Cartwright, director of the San Diego Museum of Art, said he had never heard of Wyland.
Many who are familiar with his work criticize him for redundancy – which, of course, is key to a good marketing campaign.
Ron Juncal, a muralist who owns a studio in Carlsbad, said many artists feel like they've seen one too many whales. But he quickly added that Wyland should be recognized for his technical expertise.
“He is a true magician at working large,” Juncal said. “Just to go up there with that (spray) gun and start blazing away is not an easy process.”
Hanlon, the branding expert, said Wyland's detractors help his bottom line.
“The non-believers help define who you are and what your market is,” Hanlon said. “It's very powerful; they strengthen the bond of those who do believe.”
Believers don't come any truer than Roy Chavez. The retired security guard first encountered Wyland in 1991 in Redondo Beach, where the artist was working on his 31st whaling wall.
Chavez was struck by the beauty of the mural and overcome with remorse – remembering all the soda cans he'd thrown into the ocean while fishing at the 22nd Street Landing in San Pedro.
“I felt so guilty that I volunteered to help. It was my penance for all the littering I did,” Chavez said.
The whale mural at the fair is the 65th that Chavez has worked on. And he hopes to travel in 2008 to China, where Wyland plans to complete his 100th – and last – whaling wall next to the Great Wall of China.
David Washburn: (619) 542-4582; david.washburn@uniontrib.com
