Between her dreams and oxygen / the end is all she ever asked
Black walls closing in again Losing sleep and lost in time She’ll close her eyes and unlock mine She turns water into wine
I saw this painting make a few rounds recently and wanted to share it with some extra information! It's a rather dim piece so I do advice viewing it in a dark environment, because I fear otherwise all details are lost.
Seen is a female Strap-toothed whale which has fallen prey to killer whales. She has escaped to the depths, but her injuries will probably prove fatal. Blood escapes from her mouth, rakes litter her body and in some places her blubber has been peeled off.
This was based on a (then recent) research paper which came out, documenting killer whale vs. beaked whale hunts. It contains photos and they are awful. The skin is literally stripped off the living beaked whales. I kept my Strapper's injuries rather PG, but on the edges you can see some stripped blubber. With such a grim setting, I wanted a dark and eerie mood for the painting as well, and "cetacean in darkness with eye glinting" is a firm favourite of mine in that regard.
Also the text are lyrics from a song which I could swear I'd linked in the original post, but apparently not. It's "Black Walls" by the Chromatics. Give it a listen if you wish!
All in all this is a painting I still love very much. I hope you can appreciate it too, despite the grim subject.