Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
I painted murals when I was in high school. I had a teacher that owned a Dairy Queen and
I painted an Alps scene; a snow capped Alps scene and that made people hungry for ice
cream.
So I started looking around for buildings to paint murals and I found the perfect wall
in Laguna Beach. I only had 30 days, 30 days to complete this big mural, 160 feet long,
like 3 and a half stories high and the idea was to paint a gray whale, a mother and baby,
life size right down to the last barnacle. When I came to realize that using public art
would be even more powerful by painting the great whales on these great walls, I could
inspire people to really get the message of conservation.
You could choose to not go in an art gallery or a museum but you couldn't ignore these
giant whaling walls that I was painting on the sides of these buildings.
The first one was in Laguna and after I finished that one, I said, "I'm gonna paint 100 of
these murals" and it took me 27 years to do it.
Light is everything and with me it's an inner light and what I do is I put the white into
the canvas first and then I blend the paint into it and then I pull that light through
and the whole painting kind of comes together like a Polaroid photograph. Even in murals,
it's like a giant Polaroid where you see a mass of color slowly coming into sharp focus.
Imagine that. Then, as you add one animal, you know, that tells me where another animal
may be in relationship or a coral reef. What type of animals would be in that coral reef?
Would there be a sea turtle nearby?
I try to always catch the light in the eyes but the light is everything, it really sets
the mood. Obviously the artist has the artists' license. You can do anything but more and
more I've relied on science. Not only should it be authentic, it should have a feeling.
It should be able to reach deep into your soul and great art does that. Great art moves
people. If I can move people to action and conservation, I feel pretty good.
Oh wow, that looks good!
Save the ocean!!