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DIFFERENT STROKES FOR JAMMIN' GIANTS

© Joy Butler

Weighing in around two tons and possessing the strength to lift huge logs and pull heavy loads, elephants are the largest and strongest land mammals. Their trunks have over 50,000 muscles and are used to identify scents, gather food, spray up to two and a half gallons of water, or throw objects at birds who steal their food. However, elephants are not all brute and brawn, as evidenced by an elephant named Tadpole. This talented pachyderm from Thailand rose to fame as a movie star, musician, and artist. Found starving, and rescued by Richard Lair, resident elephant advisor at the Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang, he earned the name because of his huge head and thin, undernourished body but, with proper food and care, he flourished and soon showed off new skills.

Tadpole learned to hold a brush with his trunk and work with paints to create elephant art, which, incidentally, does not sell for peanuts. The strong colors and broad, bold strokes he uses, sometimes appears to express anger, perhaps from his troublesome past. He also learned percussion and harmonica on instruments designed especially for elephants, and became a part of the Thai Elephant Orchestra. When the Disney movie, "Operation Dumbo Drop", was filmed, Tadpole played the role of an elephant being transported by US soldiers across war torn Viet Nam. His amazing talents have helped to bring in much needed funds to the Elephant Conservation Centre, which is operated to safeguard the endangered Asian elephant.

Ganesh, another elephant artist in India whose works consist of small lines on a background of color, sold one of her paintings at Christie's in New York in March of 2000 for over $2000. Five other elephant paintings were auctioned there, raising thousands of dollars for the elephants at the Centre.

In 1989, when logging was banned in Thailand and approximately 100 elephants lost their means of support, Mr. Lair established the Thai Elephant Art Academy. He taught them art and music as a way to earn their keep. The elephants surely welcomed the change from their former hard labor in the jungles to banging drums and splashing paint. Four more academies opened in Thailand, India, and Indonesia. Belinda Stewart-Cox, who works with the elephants, arranged an exhibition in December 2000 with Bloxham Galleries, a highly respected art dealer in London. Now they carry a permanent selection of Art by Elephants with a special exhibition yearly.

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