The Chance Whale surveys the coincidence of a pre-emancipatory history of Blackness and the sea as relating to ideas concealed in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and Smith’s own surfer’s quest, her spiritual navigation from the womb to the ocean. The Chance Whale is a continuation of Smith’s Origin story, framing kaleidoscopic portals through which we view life and the cyclical passage of time. These surreal, highly saturated compositions are a means of exploring and connecting Smith’s Black American lineage, the African Diaspora, and the often complex relationships of Black people to nature, particularly to the ocean. The Chance Whale, like Moby Dick and surfing, is an allusion to being on the verge of attaining freedom.