Elephants
Every canvas is a journey all its own. - Helen Frankenthaler
Did you know that elephants can grow up to be almost as tall as a one-story building?
That their ears are shaped like Africa?
That a baby elephant is able to stand within twenty minutes of being born and can walk within an hour?
I bet you didn't know that elephants have artistic abilities.
In fact, there's a conclave of these largest living land animals at Chiang Mai's famous elephant sanctuary in Thailand. They're not only survivors but artists who have become famous around the world for their incredible painting skills.
We had the opportunity to witness one of these resident artists in action.
There he was.
Talented nine-year-old jumbo named Nong Thanwa, holding an artist brush using her trunk, dabbed paint onto a piece of canvas to draw the silhouette of two elephants.
Reportedly, the scene was a depiction of her and an elephant friend in Maetang Elephant Camp.
Actually I'm not surprised.
I believe that elephants are some of the smartest animals out there.
They have an estimated 257,000,000,000 neurons in their whole nervous systems and around 11,000,000,000 in the cerebral cortex alone. To compare, humans only have an estimated 86,000,000,000 neurons in their whole nervous system and around 21,000,000,000 in their cerebral cortex.
Go figure!
 |
It is said that an elephant never forgets.
I believe the simple fact is that, you never forget an elephant.
Chiang Mai Elephant Sanctuary,
Thailand: 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment