One more thing about the SF trip
May. 19th, 2004 01:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasI forgot to mention one other cool thing we did. This goes on Sunday, before dropping my sister off at the airport.
I think I mentioned that we'd gone back to Pier 39 for some more shopping. My sister spotted a sign to a Wyland gallery.
So, who is this Wyland fellow? Well, if you've ever seen a painting of whales or dolphins on the side of a building six stories tall, that's his work. He's probably the most successful artist of marine life in the world, maybe one of the most commercially succesful artists alive today. My sister's a huge fan of his, partially because she likes his work, partially because he uses his fame and wealth, such as it is, to work for marine environment preservation, and partially because he's just a really nice guy in person.
Leila says that she was at a dive convention at one point where he had a demonstration. He was drawing in front of the audience, and a little girl walked up to him and looked over his shoulder. He said to her, "Do you like this?" and she nodded. So he gave it to her.
Now, you have to understand, orignial Wyland ink pieces like the one that he gave to the girl sell for four or five hundred dollars. THAT'S why Leila is such a huge fan of his.
Anyway, we went to this gallery. It had bronzes, glass work, oil paintings, watercolors, ink drawings, photography . . . Wyland works in a LOT of different media. Really gorgeous stuff. Leila was pointing out some stuff to us, and the gallery director saw us looking at stuff -- and looking CAREFULLY -- so came over. He started talking to Leila, and was pointing out some of the new underwater photography they had, brought it into a room they had set up where they could hang pictures on the wall with different lighting conditions, to show you what it would look like in your home. I think he was pretty sure that she was a starving college student, but he gave her the whole sales shpeil anyway, including financing and so forth. Mom made a comment about how beautiful the photo was, and Leila said, "Well, now you know why I like being underwater so much."
The director said, "Oh, you dive?" and Leila confirmed that she did. He asked where, and she told him that she had most recently been doing research in Honduras, but she'd worked for a year on the Great Barrier Reef doing environmental research.
And the director's entire manner totally changed. He completely relaxed. I mean, he was friendly before, but it was sales-friendly. But now he was talking to a real friend. A fellow diver, sure, which gives her SOME cred, but an enviromentalist and a scientist. Now he was genuinely enthusiastic about chatting with us.
It was great. He didn't let us leave until he extracted a promise from Leila to look him up next time she's in San Francisco, they'd go out for a beer, because he wanted to hear more about her research and to swap dive stories -- and, frankly, from his manner, I think that's exactly what he meant.
I think I mentioned that we'd gone back to Pier 39 for some more shopping. My sister spotted a sign to a Wyland gallery.
So, who is this Wyland fellow? Well, if you've ever seen a painting of whales or dolphins on the side of a building six stories tall, that's his work. He's probably the most successful artist of marine life in the world, maybe one of the most commercially succesful artists alive today. My sister's a huge fan of his, partially because she likes his work, partially because he uses his fame and wealth, such as it is, to work for marine environment preservation, and partially because he's just a really nice guy in person.
Leila says that she was at a dive convention at one point where he had a demonstration. He was drawing in front of the audience, and a little girl walked up to him and looked over his shoulder. He said to her, "Do you like this?" and she nodded. So he gave it to her.
Now, you have to understand, orignial Wyland ink pieces like the one that he gave to the girl sell for four or five hundred dollars. THAT'S why Leila is such a huge fan of his.
Anyway, we went to this gallery. It had bronzes, glass work, oil paintings, watercolors, ink drawings, photography . . . Wyland works in a LOT of different media. Really gorgeous stuff. Leila was pointing out some stuff to us, and the gallery director saw us looking at stuff -- and looking CAREFULLY -- so came over. He started talking to Leila, and was pointing out some of the new underwater photography they had, brought it into a room they had set up where they could hang pictures on the wall with different lighting conditions, to show you what it would look like in your home. I think he was pretty sure that she was a starving college student, but he gave her the whole sales shpeil anyway, including financing and so forth. Mom made a comment about how beautiful the photo was, and Leila said, "Well, now you know why I like being underwater so much."
The director said, "Oh, you dive?" and Leila confirmed that she did. He asked where, and she told him that she had most recently been doing research in Honduras, but she'd worked for a year on the Great Barrier Reef doing environmental research.
And the director's entire manner totally changed. He completely relaxed. I mean, he was friendly before, but it was sales-friendly. But now he was talking to a real friend. A fellow diver, sure, which gives her SOME cred, but an enviromentalist and a scientist. Now he was genuinely enthusiastic about chatting with us.
It was great. He didn't let us leave until he extracted a promise from Leila to look him up next time she's in San Francisco, they'd go out for a beer, because he wanted to hear more about her research and to swap dive stories -- and, frankly, from his manner, I think that's exactly what he meant.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-19 10:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-19 12:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-19 08:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-19 09:13 pm (UTC)I don't know that there is a life-sized public whale mural in the world that WASN'T done by him. I mean, he did one on the Great Wall of China.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-19 09:18 pm (UTC)Sorry, but no matter how wonderful the painting is (and I liked the Anchorage mural very much), that sounds like sacrilege.