WYLAND UNVEILS HIS 9TH MURAL

Laguna Beach artist Robert Wyland, the creator of several large-scale “Whaling Wall” murals in the United States and Canada, unveiled his ninth mural this week at the Polynesian Cultural Center on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.

Entitled “First Voyage,” the 130-foot-wide by 14-foot-tall work depicts South Sea islanders in double-hulled canoes, accompanied by dolphins and a breaching whale, making their first journey to the Hawaiian islands. It is the first Wyland mural to include humans in addition to the renderings of cetaceans for which the 29-year-old artist is best known.

Reached by phone this week in Honolulu, Wyland said, “Basically, I wanted to do it because I’m very interested in the Polynesian Cultural Center. They are doing a lot of things that I agree with in trying to preserve the culture of the peoples of Hawaii.”

“First Voyage” is Wyland’s second “Whaling Wall” in Hawaii. The first was completed in April, 1985, on the side of a 20-story Waikiki hotel. That mural met with considerable resistance from local merchants, who complained that it violated the city’s anti-billboard laws. But Wyland supporters, including Hawaiian state Sens. Neil Abercrombie and Mary Jane McMurdo and “Magnum P.I.” actor and art aficionado John Hillerman, praised the massive mural as a legitimate work of art that improved rather than detracted from the building’s aesthetics.

Wyland’s new work, however, is “on private property, so there was no fight,” said Hillerman, who was the keynote speaker at the dedication ceremony this week for “First Voyage.” He added that the Waikiki mural “has become one of the area’s most popular tourist attractions.”

Reached by phone at his residence on Oahu, Hillerman, a long-time admirer of Wyland’s works, said, “What Wyland is doing is interesting to me because I don’t know of any other artist making a statement on this scale. This is very special.”

Reg Schwenke, the cultural center’s director of public relations, said that the mural is “a gift from Wyland,” adding that, “We jumped at the opportunity to have his work displayed at the center. Many people here believe he will become one of the most prolific and famous artists of his generation.”

The Polynesian Cultural Center, Oahu’s most popular paid tourist attraction since 1977, is a 22-year-old, 42-acre park owned and operated by the Mormon Church. It features re-creations of villages of the seven Polynesian peoples who originally settled the Hawaiian islands.

In his brief speech at the ceremony, Hillerman said, “Beyond its pleasure as art, this work will expose thousands of people to the sublime beauty of these great creatures. All artists are communicators, be they painters or actors. . . . Wyland is communicating on a grand scale.”

The first of Wyland’s “Whaling Walls” was done on a parking lot wall in Laguna Beach off Pacific Coast Highway. The others are in Dana Point; Marineland on the Palos Verdes Peninsula; Del Mar; Seattle; White Rock, British Columbia; and Vancouver, British Columbia. The Waikiki mural, an L-shaped work 310 feet wide and 20 stories high and covering more than 24,000 square feet, is the largest of the murals.

Wyland has described his “Whaling Walls” as “a series of international murals . . . dedicated to the great whales forever.” He receives no money for the murals and supports himself through the sales of his posters and oil paintings of whales and dolphins. At the completion of his ninth mural, Wyland, who has said he hopes to eventually paint 100 murals throughout the world, added, “Only 91 more to go.”