Whatever Happened...

An update on past news

Wednesday, September 18, 1996

ANSWER: The wall was one of many designed and painted by Robert Wyland, who painted the mural on the side of a clothing store in January 1991.

"The deal was it was up for a year," he said. "The (Maui) Council pressured me to take it down."

Wyland stored the 4-by-8 foot painted plywood panels that made up the 25-by-35 foot mural. He said the wall will remain stored until the Maui political climate changes and he can reinstall the mural there. "Hopefully, one day, we'll be able to re-establish it in its original location."

Wyland's work includes the world's largest painting, a 116,000-square-foot whale mural on the Long Beach Convention Center, 11 stories tall, 1,028 feet in circumference encircling the outside of the center.

Wyland, a former Lahaina resident, now lives on Oahu's North Shore and still paints whaling murals. "I've finished 67 now in seven different countries," he said. "My goal was to do a hundred of them. The first one I did at Laguna Beach was back in 1981."

The life-size mural of a mother whale and calf at Laguna Beach was recently painted over. When that mural first was threatened, Wyland said, he paid $1 million to buy property he thought included the wall. He said he later found the wall actually belonged to a nearby hotel.

Wyland said he will create a new mural on his adjoining property made from hand-painted tiles.