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Ngam

Ngam, also known as "Chapati," is an eight year-old elephant with a singular past. Born in Israel, he was given to the Thailand Elephant Conservation Center by the Jerusalem Zoo, flown across Asia in a jumbo jet, coincidentally. He possesses gorgeous, symmetrical tusks, earning him the nickname Phlai Ngam ("Beautiful Tusks") from his mahouts (trainers). Thoughtful vertical lines characterize his artistic style.

For centuries, elephants earned their keep by hauling trees for Asia's logging industry. Deforestation and logging restrictions led to massive unemployment for the elephants, with the result that many, dependent on keepers who could no longer afford to care for them, simply died of neglect. With fewer and fewer elephants surviving in South and Southeast Asia, Asian elephants are now on the endangered species list.

To reverse this trend, dedicated men and women throughout South and Southeast Asia have created various sanctuaries for elephants, striving to preserve this majestic species. Now, aided by members of the international art community and conservationists, these sanctuaries have trained a handful of elephants in the delicate art of painting - as one way to help the animals help themselves, raising funds as well as awareness.

In Thailand, where the elephant population has fallen from 100,000 to less than 5,000 remaining animals in the past 100 years, several rescue centers have emerged. Forty-eight elephants live at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center, a government-sponsored refuge in Northern Thailand. Nine of those elephants have learned to paint - to considerable acclaim. The elephants’ paintings, compared by some critics to the works of such great abstract expressionist artists as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Franz Kline, have been exhibited internationally and have fetched thousands of dollars apiece at Christie’s auction house.

Interestingly, elephants commonly pass time by doodling on the ground with sticks and pebbles. "Teaching them to draw rewards that behavior, using different tools," suggests New York art historian Mia Fineman. Fineman believes that the idea that only humans can create art is an "artificial construct" of the art world. "Elephants are motivated by something beyond functionality," Ms. Fineman said, "and this is called art."

By making the Asian elephants' paintings widely accessible to the general public, Novica hopes to help increase awareness, encourage conservation, and raise significant funds to assist endangered elephants throughout Asia.

The Lampang Elephant Art Academy, located at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center, was founded in 1998 when elephant expert Richard Lair invited New York-based conceptual artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid to help train the elephants to paint. Now the Academy is world famous - it has been featured in numerous documentaries, news stories, and magazine articles. Many Lampang paintings sold at a Christie's auction in March 2000 in New York, and the Center had a show in London at Bloxham's Gallery in December of 2000.

The Center is also the home to the Thai Elephant Orchestra, not just the world's first elephant orchestra but the first orchestra in which any animals play instruments (as opposed to their own song) with serious musical intent. All nine painters play in the eleven-member band.

Elephant photos by Narong Chaikaew