Honolulu-based artist Havilah Abrego brings together her dual practice as a marine biologist and painter to create striking depictions of marine mammals. Inspired by her time diving and studying marine ecosystems, her work merges science, art, and a deep connection to the ocean. She invites viewers to reconnect with the ocean through her art and reflect on our shared responsibility to protect it.
Each of Abrego’s acrylic-on-canvas paintings captures the majestic beauty of life beneath the sea, from humpbacks to killer whales. Working in various shades of deep blues, she creates striking scenes that draw viewers into the mysterious depths of the ocean. Abrego began scuba diving at just 12 years old, and she hopes her paintings allow others to appreciate that same mesmerizing underwater world that she remembers.
Abrego was one of My Modern Met’s standout artists at The Other Art Fair Los Angeles 2026. We recently shared a video from the show, where the artist explains how her experiences in the ocean shape her work.
Since LA, we caught up with Abrego again to dive further into her inspirations and practice. Read on for My Modern Met’s exclusive interview and discover more of the artist’s incredible paintings on Instagram.
When did you first get into creating art?
I don’t remember a specific moment where I thought, “I want to be an artist.” Painting has just always been a part of my life. Art was always integrated into my childhood; and my parents have always been incredibly supportive of creative expression. Even before I began working with paint, I have very vivid memories of always drawing sea animals and seeking out different ways to express my fascination with the ocean. My mom homeschooled my sisters and I, and she always gave me the option to integrate art or anything to do with studying the ocean into my studies.
There is a very vivid memory I have, however, of the first time that I realized how much I loved to paint; it felt like I unlocked a portal to another world. I must have been 11 or 12 years old, and it was an afternoon that I finished school early so I could spend the day in my dad’s studio. I was working on a painting of Anacapa Island, my favorite place to go scuba diving back home in California. I was listening to the song “Atlantic” by Keane on repeat while I worked. I got lost in the craft for hours. For some reason, that was a pivotal moment where I realized, “painting is going to be a part of my life, for the rest of my life.” Of course, I still have this painting in my studio.
Are you classically trained or self-taught?
I am self-taught, and my dad was the first one to introduce me to painting. There are many painters and artists in my family, especially on my dad’s side of the family. My dad is a painter, my grandpa was a very prolific painter, and so was my great-grandma. My grandpa lived a couple blocks away from my childhood home in San Dimas, California. His house was full of paintings, and so was my dad’s workshop in our backyard. I always enjoyed spending time in my dad’s studio space while he worked. The first time he ever showed me how to paint with acrylics, I chose to paint two humpback whales, and we painted it on the back of one of his own drawings. I still have that piece framed and hung in my apartment. I started to hone my own techniques and develop the style I have now after I got comfortable with painting on my own.
When my grandpa passed, my dad and I kept all of his art supplies. To this day, I still use my grandpa’s brushes in all my work. He passed away when I was 12, so I never was able to show him my work. It’s something that I think about often.
You say that you paint from your own experiences as a scuba diver. How do you translate what you see underwater to your canvases? Do you work from photos or memory?
It’s been very fun to watch the evolution of my underwater work, because it feels like a beautiful collision between my childhood fantasy and my real-life experiences. I started scuba diving when I was 12 years old, and my first intimate experiences with the ocean were very strongly rooted in that sense of childlike wonder that we all have at that age. As an adult, I am constantly choosing to preserve and protect that sense of wonder in myself; it is the most important thing to me.
I have quickly realized that painting has this amazing power to reignite that sense of childlike wonder that we all have; it’s a very powerful emotion. I want to evoke this for my audience, and for this reason I prefer to work from my own raw memory or from my imagination. It’s a way to exercise my own muscle of wonder, and help other people get in touch with their own. I do have paintings that have been created exclusively from photographs, but most of my work is created from memory or imagination.
How does your background in marine science shape what ends up on the canvas? Do you approach composition differently because of what you know scientifically?
Watching my paintings evolve as I go deeper into scientific study has been interesting. As a scientist, I see details and patterns that my 8-year-old self may not notice, while my 8-year-old self is tuned into a magic that we can fall out of touch with as adults. I’m still exploring how I can utilize both perspectives in my work. It’s a constant dance between embracing my inner child and consulting my analytical brain for guidance.
In the example of my humpback whale paintings, I want to accurately capture the complexities of the animal’s movement, behavior, and body language while still allowing my inner child to take the wheel when I paint the lighting, the colors, and the overall perspective of the piece.
How has your process changed as your marine science knowledge has deepened?
As my knowledge of science deepens, I can feel my creative work expanding quite a bit. I feel myself beginning to enter a new genre of work, and I am very excited to see where that takes me. I would like to start directly using my paintings as a visual aid to translate complex scientific concepts or processes using real data. This would ultimately involve bringing more of my creative process physically out into the field with me. My dream is to begin creating work in real time while the research is happening, and use data collected along the way to create an entire body of work.
With that being said, the transition state between science and art is uncomfortable, it can feel like whiplash. When I’m in one state, I go in deep. I’m learning how to create space for my energy to shift into the next phase; I think of it like shapeshifting. In moments of exhaustion it can feel like certain practices in science are the antithesis of creating art, and vice versa. In reality, the two are so much more intertwined than we may think. I feel like I have no choice other than to make room for both disciplines, because one simply wouldn’t exist without the other. I just can’t imagine a world where art and science don’t coexist.
Which ocean species or ecosystems feel most urgent to you right now, and is that reflected in what you’re currently painting?
Right now, both my studies and my creative work are focused on marine mammals. I could talk quite a bit about why I feel the most invested in marine mammals at this point in my career. In summary, I have spent most of my life observing and studying whales, had close encounters with many different cetacean species, and I’ve worked with seals and sea lions in the wild and under human care. They have an incredibly vital role in the marine ecosystem, and we are very closely related to them as mammals. We have much more in common with them than we may think.
The health of the ocean is heavily dependent on the presence of marine mammals, and because they basically live in a different world, I think it is easy for us to take for granted the fact that we still share the planet with our living ancestors. I think they have a lot more wisdom than we may understand.
Which piece are you most proud of and why?
Every time I make a larger piece, it becomes the one that I’m most proud of; especially my whales. My newest Humpback whale piece is nearly 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide. They translate so beautifully and command the space in an amazing way on such a large scale, that I just want to keep going bigger. The bigger they get, the more challenging (and satisfying) they are to paint.
How do you think about audience differently when making work for public space?
I think about the audience in the same way for public pieces as I do with my personal work, I think the only difference with public pieces like my most recent one is that there could be more freedom to work with three-dimensional space rather than just on a flat canvas, this adds an entirely new layer of depth to play with. My goal with all my work is to hold space for the audience to create their own personal connection to the piece. My next big goal as an artist and scientist is to begin creating more immersive, public exhibitions that are multi-media, including things like sound and lighting.
What’s the most important thing you wish someone had told you early on in your art career?
Something that I do wish I understood at an earlier age was how much of a gift it is to be in touch with so many interests and strengths. I used to believe that I needed to choose one thing and do that for the rest of my life. Being an artist and being a scientist are not just careers or degrees that you achieve, and then you have arrived. Both are a way of moving through the world. Humans are incredibly complex, and I think there is so much beauty and power in embracing our nature as multi-faceted beings. Every aspect of life informs the art we create, and our art shapes the way we move through the world. I really do believe that our purpose as human beings on Earth is to explore, be curious, and embrace all the different facets of ourselves. I want to live as many lives as I can, and see how my art evolves through it all.
