ELEPHANT ART
What: A showing and sale of dozens of Thai elephant art original works, plus the book “When Elephants Paint,” plus video of the elephants at work; wine will be served
When: First Friday, Feb. 2, 5-9 p.m., and through February
Online: http://www.elephantart.com
First she fell in love with the art. Then she fell in love with the artists.
And that's as simple as it was for Missoula artist Deborah Busch, whose fascination with elephant art led her to purchase more than 40 original pachyderm paintings in an effort to help the big beasts, whose population in Southeast Asia has plummeted.
“I had this emotional reaction,” said Busch, of the first time a friend showed her a work of elephant art. “I welled up. I don't do this. I'm not a cynic. I'm not hard-nosed, but I started getting teary.”
That was a couple of years ago. Busch, who has worked on major motion pictures with her art and settled in Missoula 10 years ago, had never before known of these Thailand elephants, much less their ability to create art with their trunks.
So moved was she by their talent - and their plight - that she was motivated to buy more than 40 of the elephants' original works. Proceeds from their sale go to the Asian Elephant and Art Conservation Project, which aids conservation and welfare efforts for domesticated and wild elephants.
In 2005, after having seen a friend's original elephant painting, Busch contacted the Washington D.C. businessman, who made elephant art a small part of his interests. The following August, after having seen numerous photographs and prints of the elephant art, she convinced her mother to help her purchase dozens of them - not knowing if she would ever see a return on the money.
“It's an emotional thing,” Busch said. “I don't have a mission statement. But I love doing it, and if there's something that gets you in your solar plexus, you follow it.”
The plight of the Thailand elephants goes back nearly 20 years, after the government banned a certain type of logging that had kept thousands of them employed. It was a Catch-22: The domesticated elephants worked in an industry that had raked the countryside and depleted their own habitat. In a country that once boasted 100,000 elephants, there are merely 2,500 or so left, and many of them are sick, abused, malnourished and whose owners are forced to beg people for their sustenance.
Two Russian-born New York artists, moved by their story, traveled to Thailand with the crazy idea that they could teach the elephants to paint, and sell the paintings to aid in their recovery. Working with local elephant trainers, they quickly realized that elephants could - if not consciously, by positive reinforcement - create with astounding artistry both representational and abstract works.
Busch was equally amazed - especially when she saw a DVD of the elephants at work. Whether it's simply Pavlovian reinforcement or actual self-reflection doesn't really concern her.
“You can see where there might be some verbal instruction, some touching of the tusk or trunk,” she said. “I don't know the consciousness of elephants, but I know they probably wouldn't do it if they didn't want to. ... They have style. They have technique, whether they know it or not, but that's probably true of every artist who isn't manipulating the style to be popular and to make money.”
They have been trained to paint flowers, trees, themselves with such touching techniques, and let loose with abstractions at other times. Online and at live auctions, the paintings fetch hundreds and thousands of dollars each worldwide. A 2000 auction at Sotheby's raised more than $75,000 for the elephants' cause. In 2002, CBS' Minutes” told their story, and the book “Elephants Can Paint Too!” got rave reviews from the New York Times Review of Books, and sat on that newspaper's best-seller list.
Busch's elephants come from Lampang, a small mountain town in Thailand.
Though she has never met the elephants she “represents,” Busch is moved by their wandering trunks, how they hold a brush with care, how they make slow strokes across blank canvasses. While there is substantial debate on whether the elephants enjoy - or are even aware of - what they're doing, Busch is both fascinated by the art and the elephants' seeming connection to the world of art and to their human trainers.
“I've always been kind of a cat person, but aside rom dogs and horses, if there's an animal that's connected to man, it's going to be the elephant,” she said. “I can't think of an animal that's more tied to humans.”
Busch approached the owners of Burley's Green Goods Mercantile, a specialty store that focuses on eco-friendly natural home supplies. She found the ethic of the store to match perfectly with the cause of her elephants.
“I didn't necessarily want to be in a gallery,” she said. “I wanted the whole gestalt. It's really about intent. I adore (owners) Tim and Lauren (Cobb) and they're trying to do good work.”
The paintings, framed locally, are for sale and cost between $350 and $800 - a price that includes the book “When Elephants Paint.”
Reach Entertainer editor Jamie Kelly at 523-5254 or at jkelly@missoulian.com.
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