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-   -   Elephant draws a picture (https://thetfp.com/tfp/found-net/133492-elephant-draws-picture.html)

loquitur 04-05-2008 05:40 PM

Elephant draws a picture
 
To me this was amazing: an elephant drawing a picture of an elephant. All I can say is "wow."

I saw it on Andrew Sullivan's blog.

RangerJoe 04-05-2008 05:51 PM

I want that painting.

Martian 04-05-2008 06:15 PM

Elephants are one of many creatures that are much more intelligent than most people give them credit for. This is apparently More common than I would have first guessed:

Quote:

Originally Posted by www.elephantartgallery.com
Elephant painting began in 1998 when the conceptual art partnership of Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid taught selected elephants at the TECC to paint. Elephants had done this before in over 20 zoos and circuses around the world, but this was the first time in Thailand and they were the first to bring this activity to prominent media attention.

The mahouts who have had the most experience in elephant painting now perform all the teaching themselves. It takes only one day to discover if the elephant has real interest in the activity and any aptitude at art. Once the most promising students have been selected, they then continue to be taught for up to a week before they are considered ready to make a living from it.

They are taught by first showing them how to hold the paintbrush. While some curl the trunk around the brush instinctively, the preferred method at the Center is to hold the brush in the ‘nostril’ at the end of the trunk, which gives the artist greater range of movement for the brushstrokes. For this purpose the paintbrush is modified so as to be the right length and thickness to hold easily.

Next they are introduced to the easel and taught how close to stand to it so that they can extend their trunk comfortably. Finally they are guided by the mahout to apply the brush to the paper. Some artists take to this quicker than others, but all of them need time and encouragement to learn how to apply the paint within the confines of the paper, to know when the paint has dried up and to develop a style of brushstroke that suits them.

During the training the artist’s natural instinctive style becomes evident. No two elephant artists have the same style and just like human artists, their style develops and matures over time.

It is quite unnecessary to force the elephant to learn how to paint. Those that do not seem to enjoy the activity are introduced to other activities. Today there are 14 elephant artists at the Center and all of them thoroughly enjoy painting.


smoore 04-05-2008 11:56 PM

I saw that series of youtubes a couple days ago... just, "Wow".

I never want to hold another piece of ivory in my hands again.

Lots of people are calling them "faked" or "trained elephants" but how can you train a "dumb animal" to paint a variety of things? Wouldn't it just paint the same thing over and over? If I tried to teach my dog to paint he would just paint a milkbone, that would be the extent of his "talent".

I want to see it in real life which of course gets the "trained" camp all frothed up, "That's what they are trying to do, they want tourism!"

Well, it worked.

MexicanOnABike 04-06-2008 05:45 AM

ya this is amazing. i thought it was faked but they zoomed out enough to see it was really the elephant painting. i'm amazed. this is better than most people can do.

Shauk 04-06-2008 11:51 AM

amazing is an understatement.

I never knew animals had an artistic side, now I just need to find one that makes electronic music and I will have found my power animal.


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