Old Man Nature

Old Man Nature, Blake Wheeler, 2018. The longer one examines this Wheeler work, the more detailed it becomes. The old man, a physical representation of nature, seamlessly blends into the landscape. His clothes and hat are rocks, a waterfall cascades onto his shoulder, and trees sprout from his head. Tiny wildlife and a cabin are tucked into the landscape, accentuating the enormity of the figure. Many bubbles created by the man’s pipe dot the air. Each bubble contains its own underwater vignette, ranging from a shark circling a shipwreck, to fish passing a submerged robot head. This mural is a brilliant merging of the figurative and fantastical.