I was enjoying an email conversation with artist Karin Taylor about her work that includes a whole herd of elephant designs. I thought you might enjoy her art work, but also her answer to my questions:
What made you choose to draw elephants? What do they mean to you?
"I started drawing elephants one day when I was playing with a new medium, oil pastels. I recall having a small sheet of yellow pastel paper available and some new vibrant pastels just purchased...I can't recall why I drew that first elephant, he just was there, I saw him in my mind's eye. For these 7 years, I've had a love affair with adorning elephants with designs, swirls, embellishments...and the longer I sit on an idea, the more intrigued I become with the elephant.
I watched a program where a beautiful baby girl elephant was dying from depression after her mum had died, a Steve production (from Australia Zoo) and that really moved me. I then learned about the amazing emotional displays of elephants who are grieving, and the way they interact as a community, I love to learn, particularly about social behaviours. Whatever it is I'm interested in from an educational or research point of view, I tend to also become interested in drawing and painting. Or sometimes it can happen that I enjoy the image so much, that I long to draw and paint it, and afterwards, comes the obsession of learning more about whatever I'm trying to paint.
In this case, I began painting elephants before I knew why....then learned about them, and how beautiful they are afterwards. I was particularly interested to learn about the elephant keepers who told Charles Darwin that elephants can cry when grieving or feeling sad or under severe stress and this led me to understand that animals have feelings, just as humans do. I am fascinated by elephants, and all creatures in fact. The first elephant I drew was "Rainbow Elephant" and "Magic Elephant" and "The Littlest Elephant Lovelinks" would be the most recent, all in all I've painted elephants over the last 7 years, just now and then, I feel an intense desire to paint one... once painted, they become like real souls to me, I feel they are my children."
Ah! Another matriarch who heard and responded to the elephant call. I just love how Karin's inspiration moved through her to create these lovely designs.
You can view (and buy) all of Karin's art, including her elephant t-shirts, elephant framed art prints, elephant greeting cards, elephant calendars and more, over at RedBubble.
Comments