A Magic Shark Whale (Original Work) by Josefina Herz
Explore Mondoir Studio
Medium: Graphite pencil
Dimensions: 81 x 65 cm
Year: 2025
Price: $1000.00 USD
Status: available
While creating “A Magic Shark Whale,” I became absorbed in the small dots covering its skin. As I drew each mark, they began to feel like tiny sparks of magic, transforming a powerful ocean creature into something mysterious, gentle, and almost otherworldly. The slow rhythm of making those dots invited me into a quiet state of wonder, as if I were discovering the animal rather than simply drawing it. I used graphite pencil to explore the balance between strength and delicacy. The shark whale’s solid form moves calmly through the open space, while the intricate patterns across its body suggest an inner world we cannot fully know. I hope this work brings a sense of calm curiosity into its surroundings. I want viewers to pause, look closely, and remember that magic is often found in the smallest details, waiting patiently for us to notice.
Why collect this work?
A single whale shark crosses a broad, nearly empty field, making its patterned body read as both observed animal and imagined apparition.
- Josefina Herz places animals at the centre of her practice. Her statement describes a recurring tension between immediate recognition and passages where skin, fur, or scales approach abstraction, a tension concentrated here in the spotted body.
- In the supplied photograph, the shark appears in strict profile, without water, horizon, or surrounding life. Its solid silhouette establishes weight, while the unmarked ground removes scale and location, leaving the creature suspended rather than documented in habitat.
- The documented graphite pencil permits fine tonal shifts and repeated marks within a monochrome range. Here, dense patterning differentiates the broad torso from the lighter fins and tail, while also complicating the animal’s volume.
- Dated 2025 and catalogued as an 81 by 65 cm work on paper, it can sharpen a collection concerned with how natural-history description becomes speculative image through isolation and patterned detail.
About the Artist
Josefina Herz
Josefina Herz is an artist on Mondoir Studio. Artistic discipline: painting. Based in Navidad, CL.
Nationality: Argentine
Animals are at the center of my practice, not only because of the emotions they evoke in me, but because they offer a powerful way to explore...
