Critics Can’t Picture Laguna Without ‘Whaling Wall’

In an odd little dispute even for a city known as an eccentric artists’ colony, a property owner and the artist called Wyland are squabbling over whales painted on the wall of a hotel parking lot.

The “Whaling Wall” mural has become a landmark since Wyland painted it 15 years ago, launching a career that has generated 67 such scenes across the nation and in other countries, making Wyland a millionaire in the process.

But Wyland hasn’t forgotten his salad days here and has vowed to rescue his work from the hotel owner, who isn’t quite as nostalgic about the whales and wants to repaint the outdoor wall a cream color with terra cotta trim to match the hotel.

“That wall in Laguna is very sacred to me,” said the artist, whose business, Wyland Studios, was last year listed by the magazine Inc. as one of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the nation. “I was a starving artist, living in Laguna in a little tiny studio. That mural launched my career.”

The property owner intends to ask the city’s Design Review Board tonight to let him repaint the wall, something that requires board approval.

“The Hotel Laguna has its own priorities, and it’s a landmark in itself,” said landowner Richard Merritt , who leases the property to hotelier Claes Andersen. Merritt scoffed that Wyland seems to have established “squatter’s rights” on his property.

“We feel it’s in our best interest to have our own colors there,” Merritt said. “The city has no right to [interfere with] our desire to have our hotel colors on our wall.”

But zoning administrator Pat Miller, who is involved in the controversy, said the review board could decide to preserve the mural.

“This is a first, I think,” Miller said.

Passersby on Wednesday said the mural should stay.

“Like the Sistine Chapel of Italy, a restoration would be nice,” said Amy, who declined to give her last name.

Still, some locals expressed mixed feelings about Wyland, who in 1994 bought and then demolished the historic former bookstore Fahrenheit 451 to build a gallery and live-work studio next to the mural.

In fact, the top of the mural was actually painted on the side of the now-destroyed building. Merritt, who lives in Porterville, bid unsuccessfully against Wyland for the land where Wyland’s studio is now being built.

“The building he knocked down was a historical building also,” resident Max Brown said. “I think he’s being victimized by his own ambition.”

Certainly, Wyland is no stranger to controversy.

In 1992, he completed the 116,000-square-foot “Whaling Wall 33” on the Long Beach Convention Center, which the 1995 “Guinness Book of Records” calls the world’s largest mural. Though he painted “Planet Ocean” for free, some people opposed the project, dismissing Wyland’s work as cartoonish schlock.

Although Wyland is well known for his murals and the string of galleries that purvey his marine paintings, sculptures and books, his work is considered purely commercial by critics and art museum curators. In 1994, his studios posted sales of $11.7 million.

Wyland does not charge for his murals, which he says he paints to call attention to the plight of whales.

“I call what I do ‘the art of saving whales,’ ” he said.

Volunteers often accompany Wyland on his painting tours, pitching in to help mix paint or to help position the scaffolding

Wyland has also painted whale murals on the sides of Mann Chinese Theatres and Paramount Pictures Studio, both in Hollywood.

But the Laguna Beach wall is unique, he said, the first step in a 30-year project to build 100 “Whaling Walls” throughout the world.

“It was like a dream come true for me,” Wyland said. “I’m very nervous they’re going to destroy it.”

The “Whaling Wall” is chipped and weathered, but Wyland said he has offered to restore it--and that 4,000 people have signed a petition supporting the mural.

Though he now lives on Oahu most of the time, Wyland said he plans to spend more time in Laguna Beach once his new studio is complete. And some residents hope his first mural will still be standing if he moves back.

“I just think it’s a nice piece of history,” resident June Casey said. “It’s kind of nice . . . Wyland comes back so successful.”

But, she added, “on the negative side, [the mural] is kind of free advertising for him.”