Wild Life gallery

By Bonnie Eissler

Anew art gallery in Wimberley, WILD LIFE, showcases the work of prize-winning adventure photographer Rodney Bursiel. The grand opening on March 24 gave visitors a close-up view of magnificent large animals in Africa, sadly some that have been hunted to near extinction, and the great white shark, an apex predator that Rodney says is one of the most misunderstood animals on the planet, beautiful wild horses running in the ocean, and portraits of living legends like Willie Nelson and Lyle Lovett. There was also an opportunity to support efforts to save the white rhinoceros from extinction, with James Mwenda, from Kenya, giving an inspirational talk about this important conservation cause.

The art gallery has four rooms each with a different theme: Equine, Africa, Music and Water. “I focus on the subjects that I enjoy the most,” Rodney says. His began his career by taking photographs of musicians he admires because of his lifelong love for music, and it was a musician named Donavon Frankenreiter who rekindled his interest in underwater photography, which in turn led to a spectacular underwater shot of a surfer in Fiji that won third prize in a National Geographic Travel Photograph of the Year (2017) competition.

Rodney’s dad, who owned a scuba shop and gave lessons for 30 years, was an underwater photography hobbyist. “My dad taught me diving and photography,” Rodney says, “but after he sold the shop, I didn’t do any underwater photography for many years.” He later met Donavon, a musician and surfer from California, when he played at

See WILD LIFE, Page 8