Brown's seven glass mosaics are given a whimsical quality, as the artist creates aquatic creatures that act like humans as they wait for the train to arrive at their underwater station. A realistic beluga whale slides behind a commuter to read the newspaper headlines, and in another scene, a manatee waits patiently for a train seen approaching in the tunnel. Turtles dive off a subway platform in the title piece of the series. "I wanted to explore the analogy between subway travel and the movement of our fellow creatures through their natural environment," Brown says. "Underwater creatures navigate a complex spatial array of undersea passageways, much as we maneuver through our own manmade systems. I thought it would be provocative to portray them in a part of our world most closely resembling their own, but involved in activities familiar to us."

Deborah Brown grew up in California and currently lives in Bushwick/East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a neighborhood she helped pioneer as an artist and where she started Storefront, one of the first artist-run galleries in the neighborhood. Brown has a BA from Yale University and an MFA from Indiana University. Her work is in numerous private, museum and corporate collections and has been written about in publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, Art Forum, Art in America, The Wall Street Journal, ARTnews, Juxtapoz Magazine and Galerie Magazine. Brown has been a visiting artist and lecturer at Penn State University, Hunter College, Pace University, Columbia University, Maryland Institute College of Art, Yale University and Art Omi. Her work is represented in Palm Beach and Los Angeles by GAVLAK, in New York by Malin Gallery and also in Los Angeles by The Lodge.