Description

“Whale Looking at the Depths of the Ocean” is an introspective work that seeks to explore the emotions and feelings of a whale. Aren’t we all reflecting similarly when we gaze at the sky, attempting to predict the future, and seeking hope and happiness? The curves and swirling patterns in this artwork symbolize the complexities of this contemplative process. Life is never easy, whether for humans or whales. Whales face threats such as ship strikes, entanglement in fishing nets, plastic pollution, and loss of fish habitat. 

I begin with hand-drawn waves and spectrograms—the visible traces of whale calls. Those pencil lines become the scaffold for layered bands of peach, rose, lavender, and midnight blue, which I then refine and color digitally. The result is a skin of sound: ribbons that fold and unfurl like currents, each curve borrowed from the contours of a call, a breath, a pause.

In this piece, the eye of the whale is not a single pupil but an assembly of waves, gazing into the depths. The layered forms suggest lids, lashes, and the soft shadow of a socket, while the deep blues hold the quiet at the center. Through these shapes I wanted to express intimacy, curiosity, and wisdom—the felt sense that whales read the ocean with sound and memory. The warm hues carry closeness; the cool tones carry distance; together they become a look that listens.

“Whale Eyes” is an invitation to meet that gaze. As the spectrogram lines braid into flowing anatomy, the image asks you to lean in—to hear the hush between notes, to sense the calm intelligence behind the eye, and to let the ocean’s unseen harmonies come into view.