Celmins has worked in a variety of media, including painting and sculpture, but she is most regarded for the refined draftsmanship of her drawings and prints. As a printmaker, she relies on traditional intaglio, lithographic, and relief processes to produce quiet scenes of ocean surfaces, desert floors, and star-filled night skies that are highly modern in their eschewing of conventional composition. Instead of relating a narrative, Celmins seems interested in exploring the details of our natural environment. Elements normally associated with a sense of the infinite are presented in an encapsulated version for the viewer's careful consideration.

Although reminiscent of Abstract Expressionism in its allover composition, Ocean Surface possesses a cool and impersonal touch more akin to Minimalism. The rhythmic motion of the water is frozen in time, as if captured by the instantaneous click of a camera's shutter. In far more laborious fashion, however, Celmins manipulated the feathery line of drypoint, building up certain areas to create subtle contrasts of light and dark, which provide the illusion of spatial recession.