The Laguna Beach artist who created California's iconic whale-tail license plate is making a splash with state coastal officials, revoking the state's right to use his art after they snubbed his request to share profits from the image with his environmental group.
Wyland, the famed marine muralist whose paintings of ocean life envelop buildings around the world, let the state use his hazy blue image of a whale's flukes for environmentally themed license plates 14 years ago in what state officials describe as a "handshake deal."
The artist approached the California Coastal Commission several months ago asking for 20% of the state's annual profits from the plates to fund his nonprofit ocean conservation foundation. California earns about $3.77 million a year from the plates, but the Coastal Commission receives only a third of the funds: about $15 for each new plate sold. The rest goes to other state environmental programs.
"At the end of the day, the whale tail is my art and my idea, and I own the rights to my intellectual property," Wyland said in an interview Tuesday from his Laguna Beach studio. "I won't be stepped on: I'm sticking up for artists' rights, for the common person. I'm sticking up for the oceans and the coast big-time. We're not going away."
In recent weeks, the two sides attempted to negotiate terms to preserve the use of the painting on license plates. According to Coastal Commission Executive Director Peter Douglas, the agency offered to give a $100,000 grant to Wyland's foundation each year for a decade in exchange for rights to the image, but talks fell through. Wyland, who goes by his last name only, says such an offer was never communicated.
Douglas termed Wyland's demand for 20% of the plate's sales "outrageous," adding that the state Legislature, not the commission, distributes the license plate funds among agencies. According to Douglas, Wyland gave his image to the state unconditionally.
The 51-year-old artist disputes that characterization: "I was being very generous in allowing them to use, to borrow one of my images for a period of time. It's not up to [Douglas] to determine what the time is -- it's up to the artist."
The image, one of Wyland's most famous, is titled "Tails of Great Whales."
