{"id":3780,"date":"2009-06-08T06:30:14","date_gmt":"2009-06-08T14:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/drewbrophy.com\/?p=3780"},"modified":"2009-06-08T06:30:14","modified_gmt":"2009-06-08T14:30:14","slug":"what-big-ideas-and-passion-will-get-you-your-whaling-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drewbrophy.com\/what-big-ideas-and-passion-will-get-you-your-whaling-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"What Big Ideas and Passion Will Get You \u2013 Your Whaling Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3931\" style=\"width: 260px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-3931\" href=\"http:\/\/drewbrophy.com\/what-big-ideas-and-passion-will-get-you-%e2%80%93-your-whaling-wall\/whaling-wall-94-ride-the-tide-wyland-hall-del-mar-fairgrounds\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3931\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-3931\" title=\"whaling-wall-94-ride-the-tide-wyland-hall-del-mar-fairgrounds\" src=\"https:\/\/drewbrophy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/whaling-wall-94-ride-the-tide-wyland-hall-del-mar-fairgrounds-250x162.jpg\" alt=\"whaling-wall-94-ride-the-tide-wyland-hall-del-mar-fairgrounds\" width=\"250\" height=\"162\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3931\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Whaling Wall #94<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">\u201c<em>If you have the desire, passion and enthusiasm to do something, nothing in the world will stop you<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Luke Poyner<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Most people give up when things get too hard<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0 Little do they know, what they want is just around the corner, if only they hang on a little longer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">How hard will you fight for your big ideas?\u00a0 Does your passion carry you through, or do you give up when the fight gets too tough?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wyland.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wyland <\/a>was passionate about saving whales.\u00a0 At the age of 22, the Laguna Beach artist was driving down Pacific Coast Highway when his eyes were drawn to a blank wall.\u00a0 And like a bolt of lightning, he was struck with the vision of <!--more-->a life-sized pod of gray whales painted on the side of that building.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">A defining moment in his life, he decided to paint that vision.\u00a0 He thought it would be a unique way to help save whales. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">In order to paint his first Whaling Wall, Wyland ran into exhausting challenges and roadblocks.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">First, he was broke.\u00a0 He barely had the money for paint and scaffolding equipment.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">And then there was his fear of heights. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">He had never painted anything close to being that big.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">And he had no experience with public projects.\u00a0\u00a0 He needed permits, government approval, applications.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><strong>Despite the challenges, Wyland\u2019s passion propelled him forward<\/strong>. \u00a0\u00a0He got the approval of the owner of the building to paint the mural.\u00a0 Greenpeace loved the idea of saving whales, and in the beginning they helped him navigate the politics and legalities.\u00a0 He applied to the City of Laguna Beach for approval.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">That\u2019s where he ran into a huge, 3 year battle.\u00a0 The mayor of the City was opposed to a mural on the wall, as were other City groups.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">In order to convince the City to say yes to his mural, Wyland had to give numerous presentations to the City and other groups.\u00a0 It was uncomfortable, disappointing, and sometimes humiliating.\u00a0 The meetings always ended with a \u201cNO\u201d.\u00a0 After one too many \u201cno\u2019s\u201d a discouraged Wyland was about to give up.\u00a0 But one reporter for a local paper, who had been following his story, encouraged him to continue to fight.\u00a0 And that was the little push he needed to find the energy to continue to\u00a0persuade the City.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Finally, after a three year battle, in 1981, Wyland was given approval to paint his first Whaling Wall.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Wyland was now 25 years old.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0He was only able to get\u00a0Sinclair Paint to cover half the cost of the paint, and the building owner wouldn\u2019t even buy him lunch.\u00a0 He used every last dime he had to cover the cost of painting the wall.\u00a0 <strong>But in thirty days, he happily completed that wall and decided that it was to be the first of 100 walls that he would paint in his lifetime<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">After the mural was complete, the entire City, even those originally opposed to it, embraced Wyland\u2019s Whaling Wall and it became a source of pride for Laguna Beach.\u00a0 (Isn&#8217;t it great how people finally come around to see your vision once it&#8217;s laid out for them?!)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Since then, Wyland has painted Whaling Walls all over the world.\u00a0 He kept his promise, and his 100th Whaling Wall was painted at the Beijing Olympics in the summer of 2008.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Little did Wyland know back in 1981, when he decided not to give up the fight with the City, that not only would he eventually get approval to paint his first wall, but <strong>that he would be doing something so much larger than just painting a wall.\u00a0<\/strong> He would be setting a course for the next 27 years, saving whales, helping cities, and writing himself into history books.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-3623\" href=\"http:\/\/drewbrophy.com\/beware-of-the-online-art-contest-you-lose-even-if-you-win\/spunk-brophy-head-shot\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-3623\" title=\"spunk-brophy-head-shot\" src=\"https:\/\/drewbrophy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/spunk-brophy-head-shot-166x250.jpg\" alt=\"spunk-brophy-head-shot\" width=\"116\" height=\"175\" \/><\/a><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">You, too, can set course for something big, memorable and meaningful.\u00a0 It all starts with just one wall.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">\u00a0Spunk Brophy xxoo (Follow me on <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/mariabrophy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">!)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">*Check out Wyland\u2019s book written in 1995 titled:\u00a0 \u201cWhale Tales, Tales from America\u2019s Leading Marine Life Artist\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">\u201c<em>For some people,\u00a0a<\/em><em> blank wall is frightening<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Wyland<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIf you have the desire, passion and enthusiasm to do something, nothing in the world will stop you.\u201d\u00a0 Luke Poyner Most people give up when things get too hard.\u00a0 Little do they know, what they want is just around the corner, if only they hang&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[818,1098,1402,1403],"class_list":["post-3780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drews-tips","tag-passion","tag-spunk-brophy","tag-wyland","tag-wyland-whaling-wall"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Big Ideas and Passion Will Get You \u2013 Your Whaling Wall - Drew Brophy - Surf Lifestyle Art<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/drewbrophy.com\/what-big-ideas-and-passion-will-get-you-your-whaling-wall\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta 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