Salt Lake City's 9th & 9th whale is about to receive an eye-opening new look

SALT LAKE CITY — Four years after making a splash, Salt Lake City's gigantic whale is getting a fresh new, eye-opening look that aims to draw attention to the city's namesake.

Salt Lake County-based artist Jiyoun Lee-Lodge has been selected as the new mural artist for "Out of the Blue," the 23-foot-tall sculpture in the 9th & 9th neighborhood, city art officials announced on Saturday. Her piece, "Open Your Eyes," will replace the original mural design, "Point of Reference," that artist Mike Murdock painted on the whale when it debuted in 2022.

The new mural, expected to be painted in the coming weeks, will be pink and blue with a large eye painted onto the whale's body above the waves at its base. It's meant to reflect the colors and experiences of the Great Salt Lake and also the state's vast skies, city officials explained.

"The colors may change, but 'Out of the Blue' will remain the joyfully unexpected landmark that Salt Lakers have made their own," said Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall. "This new mural, inspired by Great Salt Lake, reflects a city that can hold onto what it loves while continuing to grow, evolve and see itself in new ways."

Murdock's "Point of Reference," an abstract interpretation of the city's colorful sunsets, ultimately became a revered piece, ending up on clothing, flags and other merchandise, and it was also adopted into some of the neighborhood's signage.

But it was never intended to be the whale's only look. From the beginning, the Salt Lake City Arts Council said it wanted to turn the whale into the canvas for local artists to paint it in different ways every three to five years.

Lee-Lodge emerged from the dozens of local artists who applied to paint Salt Lake City's beloved whale, after the council announced last year that it was ready to give the whale a new design.

Born in Korea, Lee-Lodge earned fine arts degrees from Chung-Ang University in Seoul, as well as Brooklyn College in New York City, before relocating to the Salt Lake area. Her work, which she describes as being inspired by surrealism and animation influenced by her "shifting identity as an immigrant," has been featured all over the globe, including a sculpture at the 600 South TRAX stop.

The Salt Lake City Art Design Board picked her after reviewing her portfolio and also reviewing the results of a survey, which gathered responses from over 1,700 residents.

Many said they wanted the next design to be "fun" and "iconic," while also highlighting the community. Words like "unique" and "colorful" were also thrown out by survey participants.

"It's a pretty funky (and) unique area that prides itself on being quite different, and that came about in the survey," said Renato Olmedo-González, public art program manager for the city arts council, said of the survey results last year.

Lee-Lodge is scheduled to begin painting the new mural toward the end of this month. It will be formally celebrated during an event called "Whale Fest" on Oct. 3.

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