Wyland: The First Whale

I was fourteen years old when I saw my first whale.

I was standing above Laguna Beach when I saw a grey whale and her calf moving through the water below. I had always been fascinated by water and marine life, but seeing a whale in the wild was something different.

There are moments that become part of you.

You may not understand their importance when they happen. You simply know that something has shifted.

That encounter stayed with me. In many ways, it shaped the direction of my life. I began painting whales. Then sculpting them. Eventually they took me around the world, into the oceans, into conservation, and into a lifetime of trying to help people feel the wonder I had felt that day.

It still amazes me that a moment lasting only minutes could influence more than fifty years of my life.

People can affect us that way too.

Someone enters our life, and because they were here, we are different.

That is one of the reasons I became a part of Tribute Art by Wyland™. It recognizes that the people and experiences that shape us do not simply disappear when a life ends. Their presence continues through us.

Art gives us a way to honor that connection — and to keep something meaningful close.

—Wyland