"What initially drew me to the story of this whale, was the weight of the task he had. There was a magnificent, solitary creature, the largest our planet has ever known, tasked with being the protector of the seven seas. All life on earth comes from the oceans and thanks to the whale, we have oxygen to breathe, and carbon extracted. Secondary to this, I was struck by the many variations of this story and how they appeared cross-culturally, from Korea, Japan, and Aboriginal Australia, all the way to Europe.

To capture the beauty, weight, and depth associated with this story, I depicted the whale on antiqued paper, diving into the sea's depths. The inscriptions on the whale and its tail are painted in genuine palladium, and its body is highlighted with semi-precious azurite stone. The sea is decorated with silver, moon gold, and tin leaf. Hematite crystals are scattered across the Indian inked paper, adding to the dimensional finish of the work."