I actually saw two minke whales one day while looking out over the sea from the cliffs at Burnt Head! On a separate day I had simply noticed how the sea could sparkle. When I decided to create this print I was itching to make a print that used only black and lots of it! So the shiny black whales were central and it all just came together, the atomic explosion seemed to somehow add a bright (happy?!) if ominous brilliance to an otherwise colorless scene. And the two characters, who do happen to work and/or live on Monhegan and who I saw fairly often, but did not really get a chance to know, felt like two nicely contrasting "types", always with their heads adorned as they are depicted here.