Earnhart is always on the lookout for singular moments in life “of being awestruck with the world for a moment,” a “fantastic moment that brings you into the present and ignites your senses.” Upon reading a passage invoking such a feeling in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, she knew she wanted to capture it in oils.
“If you stand where the ocean breaks on a shallow beach, you see the raised water in a wave is translucent, shot with lights… then a new wave would swell above the horizon, containing in it, like scorpions in amber, sharks that roiled and heaved. The sight held awesome wonders: power and beauty, grace tangled in a rapture with violence.” (ch. 1, p. 8)