Daniel Wheeler created the Bird Hub valise simultaneously with Bird Hub Installation, to educate viewers about the many bird species that pass through the San Elijo Lagoon. Wheeler envisioned the lagoon as an avian airport, and identified the birds as transient passengers arriving, taking off and changing directions from a central bird hub. Designed in the fashion of 1900s armoire trunks and covered in stickers from far away places, the valise calls attention to earlier and slower forms of long distance travel. Inside the trunk, drawers and compartments contain everything a traveler passing through the lagoon might need- a map, a compass, binoculars and information about the lagoon’s inhabitants.

About the artist: Daniel Wheeler was born in New Haven, Connecticut and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art in Sculpture from Brown University. Wheeler has lived and worked in Los Angeles since 1984 and his work is widely exhibited in the United Sates and Japan. His work includes installations, set designs and sculpture, and belongs in public collections along the west coast, including the Los Angeles Museum of Art, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, and the Laguna Museum of Art. Wheeler involves nature in all of his work, and recently embarked on a new body of work that shows views of nature through underwater photography.

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