Long Beach, California Wyland Whaling Wall 33

History of the Long Beach, California Wyland Whaling Wall 33

-Planet Ocean

The behind the scenes story:

Painting the largest mural in the world

“I received a phone call at my Hawaii studio with an invitation to fly to California and discuss the possibility of painting a Whaling Wall for the city of Long Beach,” Wyland recalls. “The idea was for me to get together for lunch with the mayor and the city planner on the Queen Mary. After we ate, they took me to the top of the ship to take in the sights of the city. The vantage point had been carefully selected so that we looked over what I would later find out was the Long Beach Sports Arena and Convention Center.”

As I looked out the window, I saw a giant, round cylinder. It was huge. I asked, “;How big is that thing?” They said it was about 110 feet high and well over 1,000 feet around the entire building. I said immediately, That would be perfect. Could you make that happen? They replied, almost in unison, You got it! I came to find out later that this was the wall they wanted me to paint; it was already planned. I asked them where we were on approval to paint the center. They told me I had just had lunch with everyone who needed to grant permission. All I had to do was say yes and tell them what I needed. I was confident I could paint it, but I would need a tremendous amount of support from the city and enough time, materials, and volunteers.”

“I envisioned a theme of Southern California marine life and scheduled to paint the wall in the spring, It didn’t take long, however, before the entire thing erupted into a major controversy. I had felt from the beginning that it all sounded too good to be true. And it was. Some community members, including the Art Association of Long Beach, felt they weren’t included in the decision. The architect who designed it thought it shouldn’t be touched. But the worst part was when the city came back to me and said they couldn’t get any funding. Initially, they had said they would finance the project. Now, they weren’t going to be able to donate one dollar. In the past, I would provide my time, my art, and my labor as a gift to the city, and we would try to have sponsors help with costs for heavy equipment and other materials. But here, the entire financial burden was placed on my shoulders. Not only would I have to paint the largest mural in the world, but I would also have to supply the paint, the scaffolding, all supplies, everything. I decided the wall was still worth doing, though. Sinclair Paint sold me the paint for cost, which ended up costing
over $50,000 out of my pocket. The wall first had to be washed and prepared, another $30,000. And the other costs, tools, and scaffolding, meant another $50,000. By the time all was said and done, it cost me nearly $200,000 of my own money to do this mural. Plus, I had blocked out eight weeks for the project, which kept me from painting in the studio, costing me even more.

“The first thing we had to do was pressure wash the wall. That was quite a job because we had to go up on the scaffolding and blow off some of the old paint. Then we had to tape the windows, which took nearly a month. Fortunately, people saw the incredible amount of work that the project required and offered to volunteer. In no time, our volunteers grew into the hundreds, from the vice mayor to street people to everyone in between. Eventually, we managed to get organized with a paint crew, an office crew, an office Mom, a scaffolding crew, and an equipment crew. The scope of this project was beyond anything I’d ever known. The paint was brought in by the trailer full, over 7,000 gallons, enough to fill a warehouse. The more I looked at the wall, the more I questioned whether I could actually do this. But I had help. My assistant, Roy Chavez, had enlisted other professional painters to prepare the  wall with a good coat of primer. When this was done, Roy and I began painting massive bands of background color on the wall.
There were probably twelve different bands of color that had to be applied around the entire circumference of the wall – all 1,225 feet. It took a lot of planning and organizing. But most of all, it was just plain old-fashioned hard work. By the second day, I couldn’t even lift my arm.  It was unbelievably physical. Eventually we had painted enough sections that I could start painting the marine life. When I got that first whale on the wall, it seemed like the spirit of the entire city changed overnight. People started coming down to the site and seeing for themselves what a tremendous effort it really was, not only by me but by the volunteers.

“Within a week, I had painted several whales, and we were getting a lot of attention. The next weekend was the Long Beach Grand Prix and the race route would go all the way around the sports arena. Over 200,000 people were expected to attend the event.  ABC’s Wide World of Sports featured the work throughout their telecast of the race. It was an unprecedented opportunity to promote marine life conservation to millions of people who might not have otherwise given it a second thought. I was grateful for the chance to inspire them.

As I painted my way around the arena, I kept looking around the curve in the wall for the place I had started. Six weeks later, I saw the other end. The curvature of the wall was interesting in that it presented a unique challenge. If I was painting a blue whale, I would be painting the body and not be able to see the head or tail, so I had to envision it in my mind. The roundness gave the mural more of a three- dimensional quality. It was not all smooth sailing, however. In the fifth week, news of the Rodney King verdict suddenly invaded every television screen in America. We could see the fires clearly from the scaffolding. To say it was unnerving would be an understatement.  I finished the project the night the riots ended; we had a special dedication ceremony, and my friend, actor Chris Robinson, dedicated the mural along with Vice Mayor Jeff Kellogg, who, with his assistant, Linda Pope, had supported me and worked so hard on the project. The mural was, for me, my greatest challenge up until that time. It was not only the largest, but it required the most perseverance.

Whaling wall 33

Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach, California
1,280 Feet Long x 105 Feet High
Dedicated July 9, 1992
By Chris Robinson, Actor
Guinness Book of Records, May 4, 1992

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