DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM Wyland posed yesterday below the mural he is working on at the new Navy Exchange, under construction near Pearl Harbor. It will take more than 500 gallons of paint -- most of it blue -- to complete the 10,000-square-foot painting.

It’s a whale
of a picture

A mural by artist Wyland
will adorn the ceiling of the
new Navy Exchange

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

Marine life artist Wyland is completing his 89th marine life mural -- probably his last in Hawaii -- on the seven-story-high ceiling of the Navy's $50 million shopping mall under construction near Pearl Harbor.

Wyland said he was willing to paint a mural on the 200-foot-diameter ceiling on the Navy Exchange's entrance for free because many in the military buy his work.

"The Navy is a natural for me," said Wyland. "I have a lot of support here. I couldn't think of a more appropriate place for my last ocean mural in Hawaii."

The two-story, 340,000-square-foot Pearl Harbor mall, which will feature the Navy's largest retail outlet in the world and the largest military supermarket in Hawaii, will open this fall.

It will combine the Navy Exchange -- which in the military is simply a retail outlet -- with a commissary, or military supermarket, for active service members, their families, reservists and their families, and retirees.

Wyland said the mural represents "a whale's-eye view" from 70 feet underwater looking up to the surface. Five whales, including a mother nursing her calf, along with a giant manta ray are depicted. As he worked on the mural yesterday, Wyland said he may add dolphins and sea turtles to the seascape.

Mike Cottrell, district and general manager of Navy Exchange Hawaii, noted that the retail space in the new exchange will go to 132,778 square feet from 75,219 square feet. More than 100,000 items, including clothing, jewelry, sporting goods, computers, cameras, electronic items and domestic products, will be stocked.

Shoppers will be greeted by a two-story waterfall at the mall's entrance. The mall will be near the existing Navy Exchange, which was torn down and converted into a parking lot with 1,800 parking stalls, on Radford Drive outside Pearl Harbor.

A new, expanded food court will be housed on the mall's second floor, with 15,957 square feet of food vendors and indoor seating.

Another 8,000 square feet of seating will be established on an outside lanai.

"The value of the Navy Exchange is that it is for the benefit of the sailors," Cottrell said.

"It's their profits that built this mall," he added, noting that the funds to build the complex were not taxpayer dollars, but money generated by sales at the exchange.