Artwork > Oceana

“Sasha”
“Sasha”
Acrylic on poplar
37” x 11 1/2” x 3/4”
2022

Sasha is a humpback whale known well by the Alaskan naturalists of Gastineau Glacier and Saginaw Channel.

Of the 20,000+ humpbacks in the North Pacific population, Sasha is presumed to cycle between the Hawaiian calving habitat and Southeast Alaska feeding grounds. A mature female, Sasha has been sighted with offspring in 2011 and 2015.

@happywhale_official records show her presence in the ‘Au’au channel of Maui Nui as early as 2005. @juneauflukes maintains a catalog that includes Sasha as a celebrated member, imparting nearly 100 sightings to @gastineau_guiding over one decade.

Scientists and naturalists of Maui are currently tracking humpbacks engaged in riotous competition pods, but one particular artist is searching for familiar pigments of fluked wanderers. #SashaTheWhale roams somewhere under these vast depths, a mote of stardust under the cerulean cosmos.