Wyland Agrees to Grace City With Whales

When Bill Clawson first came to Ventura and saw the ugly concrete canyon of the Ventura Freeway that cuts through the city, he had a flash of inspiration.

As the new executive director of the Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau, he wanted to transform the ugly gray slab into a local monument.

He dreamed of bringing the world-renowned marine artist Wyland to Ventura to paint more than 500 feet of drab freeway retaining wall with giant whales.

Two years and many phone calls later, Clawson’s perseverance has paid off: Wyland, the marine Michelangelo whose colorful depictions of whales and sea life adorn huge walls from Mexico to Japan, has agreed to paint a wall in Ventura in 1998--provided adequate funds can be raised to commission the mural.

The proposed mural would decorate the inland wall of the Ventura Freeway at the California Street offramp, a 552-foot stretch of concrete that ranges in height from 15 1/2 feet to 23 1/2 feet.

“The challenge is, how do you make the city look better from the freeway,” Clawson said.

He recalled how, before he moved to Ventura, he would zoom down the coast in his car.

“There are those huge concrete walls, and the train goes charging overhead. . . . It just never made me want to get off the freeway and check it out,” he said.

Several local officials agree the area needs sprucing up and are already lining up behind the imaginative project.

“To think that we have the opportunity to turn an eyesore into a spectacular work of art that will forever redefine the image of Ventura to passing travelers is irresistible,” said Mayor Jack Tingstrom.

“I have seen his art in eight to 10 places and it absolutely takes your breath away,” he said. “Not only are they beautiful works of art, they are huge . . . I mean they are whale size.”

*

The mural would cost $250,000. As planned, at least half of the money would be raised privately, by a committee whose members include Tingstrom, state Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-Santa Barbara), Ventura City Councilmen Jim Friedman and Gary Tuttle, Channel Islands National Park Supt. Tim Setnicka and several other local officials.

If private fund-raising doesn’t generate all the money needed, the committee might ask the city of Ventura for up to $125,000 in public arts funds that it sets aside for community arts projects, Clawson said.

Wyland, who lives in Hawaii, normally paints his massive whale walls for free. Clawson said he initially asked Wyland to paint in Ventura for free as well.

But Wyland refused to work gratis, saying he has already painted so many murals in Southern California--including the world’s largest mural, which wraps around the Long Beach Convention Center.

When the prospects for Ventura looked grim, Clawson then sought to commission Wyland for the mural.

About six months ago, the long-awaited phone call came.

Wyland agreed to do the job and has said he would donate a tenth of his fee--or $25,000--to the American Oceans Campaign. He could not be reached for comment.

Wyland’s love affair with whales began in the 1970s when he first saw the Pacific Ocean.

When the Detroit native was 14, his mother, who was an assembly line worker, packed him and his three brothers into a station wagon and headed off for Laguna Beach to visit his aunt.

There he saw a whale--and the Pacific Ocean--for the first time. It changed his life.

Now 40, Wyland seeks to create awareness about the ocean and its creatures through his art.

He has painted what are known as “whale walls” in nearly 70 cities around the world. He is planning to complete 100 life-size murals of whales by the year 2011--30 years after completing his first Whale Wall in Laguna Beach in 1981.

Every mural Wyland paints portrays marine life unique to that area. In Ventura’s case, Wyland would meet with a team of local biologists to discuss the marine life native to the Santa Barbara Channel and the Channel Islands, such as blue and gray whales and many types of dolphins.

A Wyland advance team came to Ventura to check out the wall in late May.

A representative said Wyland looks forward to painting in Ventura.

“Wyland wasn’t available to do another mural on the West Coast,” said Sondra Augenstein, Wyland Galleries’ special projects manager. “But persistence on the part of the Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau really convinced him . . . He has now seen the wall and is very excited.”

Some officials are concerned that the project may face resistance from local artists.

*

Wyland has faced such opposition in cities such as Long Beach, where people condemned his art as tacky and commercial.

Councilman Friedman said the public should be the final judge.

“I think we potentially have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity being laid at our feet,” Friedman said. “We ought to at least run it up the flagpole to see what the public thinks, because ultimately they decide what kind of public art we should have.”

Ventura’s Art in Public Places Advisory Committee will discuss the proposed mural at 4 p.m. Thursday at City Hall.

But Clawson said the mural committee never considered any artist besides Wyland.

More than 106,000 cars a day barrel through the city on the Ventura Freeway. City officials hope the huge mural will lure passersby off the highway, and boost Ventura’s tourism industry.

“This would put a spotlight on Ventura,” Clawson said. “We wouldn’t be able to do that with any other artist.”