Thought you’ve seen everything, haven’t you? Check out this video I stumbled across of elephants who were trained to paint.
When I first heard about this, I expected random Pollock-esque splatters of paint on the canvases or the animals holding a brush in their trunks and making random brush strokes. But see for yourself, these elephants are actually painting. Elephants are a very intelligent animal, capable of grief, self awareness, empathy, compassion and even altruism. They can play, use tools, have an excellent memory and can be trained to make music (elephant orchestras) so it’s no surprise they can make art, as seen above.
In 1997 elephant experts teamed up with artists to create an elephant art academy to raise money and awareness. They taught the animals to hold the brushes and create lines or dots on parts of the canvas to produce pictures, many of which were abstract, but some resemble objects such as flowers and even self portraits. Other times the elephants were allowed to paint how they chose, which resulted in truly abstract and original art which is also sold at auctions.
This reminds me of Koko, the gorilla who could speak sign language, who, along with other gorillas, can create art with finger painting. They are able to distinguish colors and surprising even attach emotional value to them, for instance making a predominantly red painting and calling it, “anger.” You also may remember Tillamook Cheddar, the dog whose painting sales were making the owner quite happy.
Some argue the authenticity of the elephants paintings which is why in the Thailand group seen in the video, paintings are made before a crowd so there can be no doubt. I’ve seen videos where a baby’s arm was shown finger painting, which was obviously the parent holding the arm off screen to paint the picture. In this video I see no such foolery, and certain “myth buster” websites have confirmed its authenticity.
After reading some of the comments to the video some people argued against the captivation and training of elephants. Unfortunately these days it seems there can be no safer place for this beautiful dying species than in the care of professionals and veterinarians in wildlife refuges and zoos across the world. The artwork created by the elephants is sold or auctioned off, sometimes bringing in up to $25,000 at auction houses such as Christies. All of the money goes to the preservation of the elephants, whose numbers are decreasing at an alarming rate.
They may not be able to make truly creative works of art but can be trained to reproduce the same paintings over and over. If you think about it, that is our own situation on a much smaller scale in terms of most of the art we create, as well any other specializations in our jobs and every day life.
Elephants can paint and make artwork time and again. You have no excuse!
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