Beluga woodcut with little whales in the big whales

Belugas are a beautiful white whale with a round shaped head that reside in icy waters in the far north. I’m in love with their sweet faces. When I was a child I remember seeing a beluga at the Shedd Aquarium and being totally enamored. Now of course I think it’s a tragedy when whales are kept in captivity.

This piece is part of a series of whales that I made about games that whales play. These cuties blow bubbles at each other as a form of play and potentially to signify the whale's mood. There are 4 shapes of bubbles, blowhole drips, blowhole bursts, blowhole streams, and mouth rings (according to a study done by an animal behaviorist Michael Noonan.) Huge rings come out of their mouths, really you can look it up! The other two prints I made in this series are orcas playing with kelp (a game called kelping) and dolphins playing with pufferfish (nobody gets harmed in the process.)

One other little fun fact, I added a narwhal into the piece because a lone narwhal was found in a beluga pod in the St Lawrence in 2018. In 2019 researched found a narwhal/beluga hybrid. Narluga? Belwhal?

I have two versions of this piece, one version there are whales inside of whales and the other version the whales are all white. The whales inside of other whales version is more fantastical than the all white one but happy to have two fun prints.

14” x 25"
edition of 7
title: Bubbling Belugas