| Back | Home | Elephant Art | Elephant Foundation | Elephant Art Gallery | 
 | Save a Sumatran Elephant | Elephant Museum |

• Elephant Safari Lodge opens at the Elephant Safari Park
• Amazing Race Asia comes to Bali - Elephant Safari and Rafting adventure tasks.
• Australian woman gored by elephant - Important Announcement from the Management
• There is only one 'REAL' Elephant Safari Park - Statement by Nigel Mason - Manager.
• Special visitors during the D8 Conference - The Turkish Prime Ministers wife visits the Elephant Park
• Trunk Call from Johnny Landung – Air Paradise In flight Magazine.
• Rescue Mission Saves Jungle Divas - Diana Shearin - Bali Adventure Tours
• Painting for peanuts and big money - by R. Daniel Foster - The Christian Science Monitor.
• Owning a Ramona - by Catherine Ryan - Novica Web Site Editor-In-Chief.
• Trumpeting the Latest in Art - by Maria Puente - USA Today Staff Writer.
• Painting for Peanuts and Pachyderms - by Vi Ho - Northwest Airlines World Traveller.
• Painting Pachyderms - by Theo Douglas - Long Beach Press Staff Writer.
• Unforgettable Works of Art - by Patricia Sheridan - Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
• Trunk Show - by Sheila J. Gibson - Robb Report.

World First - Luxury Lodge Opens at The Elephant Safari Park | Elephant Safari Park Lodge |
The only park in the world where you can sleep in luxurious surrounds amongst the endangered Sumatran Elephant.

12 February 2008 – In inimitable Bali Adventure Tours’ style an incredible adventure experience has been created with the launch of a private luxury safari style lodge set within 3.5 hectares of the multi award winning Elephant Safari Park in Ubud on the island of Bali.

Opening to guests from 01 March 2008, the purpose built 25 room Elephant Safari Park Lodge created by Bali Adventure Tour operators and Park owners Nigel and Yanie Mason, offers a world exclusive experience for guests to interact, feed, ride, observe, learn, play and stay overnight with 27 beautiful Sumatran Elephants, one of the most rare and endangered species of elephants left in the world today.

Guests at the Lodge are privileged to experience being transported from their Lodge room by their very own Elephant Chauffeur for a door to door safari style ride. Individual smartly built landings have skilfully been designed in line with the height of an elephants back to allow for guests to step straight from their room directly onto a leather saddled elephant.

Apart from these unique features, the Lodge boasts all the trappings of a luxury boutique resort with swimming pool, bar, lounge, terrace, gym and spa. Offering four separate air-conditioned accommodation styles ranging from Paddy View Rooms and Park View Rooms with balconies, Garden View Rooms and the luxurious two-bedroom 104m2 Taro Suite with a floor to ceiling glassed master bedroom, extra king size bed, and two bathrooms, including one with a corner Jacuzzi spa tub. The Taro suite also comes with a superbly appointed guest lounge room with private bar and butler and a 20 meter wrap around terrace for outdoor dining and elephant watching.

The spacious room designs have been created to provide a resort style haven amongst the peace and tranquillity of elephants enjoying tropical parkland surrounds. The Lodge is also well designed to cater for special events, weddings, honeymoons, meetings and incentives groups or sunset cocktails and private dinners.

“We built the Lodge for the type of guest, whether a family, couple or sole adventurer, that are looking for a one of a kind experience. Our facilities, services and design reflect our natural forest location, botanical gardens and beautiful mountain environs and of course our 27 rescued and rehabilitated Sumatran elephants. Although we provide all the modern day luxury comforts, a stay at the Elephant Safari Park Lodge is more about the interactive elephant experience”, says Park owner and Lodge creator Nigel Mason. “I guess a stay at the Lodge is like a five-star luxury camping experience”.

“Everything in our Lodge rooms from interior finishes; to the Lodges artworks and soft furnishings are custom made and elephant inspired to complement the natural surroundings. Hand dyed regal blue and gold bed runners embroidered with elephant insignia, bedside lamps with elephant motifs, artworks created by the Parks own elephant artisans, even the legs of the beds are carved to resemble elephant feet.” adds Nigel.

The Lodge’s outdoor areas are also elephant inspired featuring stunning stone Ganesha statues and carvings. Master craftsman and stonemason Richard North Lewis was commissioned to design several stone carving wall reliefs depicting elephant stories from Cambodia, Borabodour, Thailand and India to create an incredible open-air art gallery for guests strolling through the gardens and relaxation areas.

The Lodge’s Mammoths Head Bar & Lounge, which seats up to 50 guests, features an impressive 20,000 year old original Siberian Mammoth head that presides over the well stocked bar and wine cellar. Inside a rare collection of 40 hand painted historical elephant etchings spanning more than two-centuries in time are displayed for guest to enjoy, as are oversized lounges, and tables and chairs under shady umbrellas on the spacious Terrace overlooking the sparkling swimming pool and parklands.

The multifaceted Lodge also includes a Safari Wellness Spa accessed through an all glass atrium reception. The elegantly appointed male and female rooms use cleverly designed one way glass windows to afford incredible views of the elephants whilst guests are being pampered. A range of signature treatments using Wild Yam scented products reflecting the village name of Taro where the Park is located, offers an extensive selection of body treatments, waxing, facials and hand, foot and hair treatments. An air conditioned Fitness and Weights Room featuring state of the art Matrix equipment completes the Lodges primary facilities.

Another addition to the Park is the new and resplendent granite and stone purpose built Wedding Pavilion. The wedding pavilion features a white stone elephant altar and traditional antique four post decorative Javanese ceremonial Joglo decorated with frangipani pillars, candles and a rose petal flower laden aisle. With seating for up to 40 guests amidst a backdrop of the elephant park, bathing lake and stunning sunsets, it presents for one of the most spectacular ways to declare a commitment. Following all ceremonies, a romantic dinner for two is served in a privately appointed wedding gazebo.

The Elephant Safari Park and Lodge is a Bali Adventure Tours product, designed and built by owners Nigel and Yanie Mason. The Lodge interior design was commissioned to GW Interiors. The Elephant Safari Park and Lodge will open to receive guests from 01 March 2008. | Elephant Safari Park Lodge |

Elephant Safari Park Lodge Opening Promotional Rates

Taro Suite $821+ pp (includes private butler)
Park View Rooms $495+ pp
Garden View Rooms $360+ pp
Paddy View Rooms $270+ pp
Extra bed $180+. High Season Surcharge $100+per person

Inclusions:

• 1 night stay in a choice of Taro Suite with Private Butler, Park View, Garden View or Paddy View Room accommodations
• Complimentary Fruit Platter, Cold Towel and Welcome Drink on arrival
• Complimentary Park Entrance to The Elephant Safari Park, Museum and Gallery, and Elephant Shows
• Complimentary Breakfast at Mammoths Head Bar & Lounge
• Four Course Dinner at the Elephant Safari Park Restaurant
• Complimentary Elephant Chauffeur to Dinner (excluding Paddy View rooms)
• One Bali Adventure Tours activity of choice. Choose from White Water Rafting, Kayaking, Mountain Biking, Trekking, Elephant Ride, 60min Aromatic Balinese Massage
• Complimentary use of Fitness Room and Park relaxation pavilions and gazebos
• Complimentary Airport or Hotel Transfers in air-conditioned vehicle

Rates are based on a one-night stay per person and are valid until 31 March 2009. Aforementioned rates are quoted in USD and not inclusive of 11% government tax.

Reservations: Bali Adventure Tours / Elephant Safari Park Lodge | Elephant Safari Park Lodge |
Phone: +62 361 721 480
Fax: +62 361 721 481
Email: info@baliadventuretours.com
Web: www.baliadventuretours.com

For editorial enquiries, hi-rez photos or media visits please contact: Diana Shearin at DiSh Public Relations on 081 338 715 511 or dish@dishpublicity.com

For contract rates and tour, travel and agency enquiries please contact: Sales & Marketing: Yona Yoan at Bali Adventure Tours on 721 480 or 081 238 40363/ yonayoan@baliadventuretours.co.id
 

| Click here to see the Press Release | Click here to see behind the scenes photo's |
 

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

The ‘Elephant Safari Park’ at Taro, would like to disassociate itself from any other ‘elephant operator’ in Bali. The recent elephant related accident involving an Australian woman did not take place at our Elephant Park, but rather at a rafting company in Klungkung that has a small amount of elephants. The ‘Elephant Safari Park’ management would like to categorically state that the two elephant camps in Bali have no business relationship with this company and they cannot make claim to being an Elephant Safari Park of similar quality. Click here to see the news article.

The ‘Elephant Safari Park’ is a major tourist development that has invested many millions of dollars to build a ‘world class’ elephant rescue centre at Taro, north of Ubud. The park includes infrastructure to protect both the elephants and guests alike and the management has implemented numerous procedures and controls for this purpose.

The Elephant Safari Park at Taro is situated on three hectares of landscaped gardens and surrounded by government forest, that is used for elephant safaris. Apart from there being a large area dedicated to the elephants, including a newly developed breeding area, the park also has an elephant museum and information centre, a five star 250 seat restaurant, show arena, large elephant related gift shop and a soon to be opened 25 room hotel, to be named ‘The Safari Park Lodge’. It has been praised as ‘the best Elephant Park in the world’ by such people as the late ‘Steve Irwin’ and is a member of the World Zoological Association. The Elephant Safari Park is fully licensed and approved by the Indonesian Government to care for the 27 elephants that currently reside at the park.

We would like to assure guests, that not only is every precaution taken to protect them when they visit the ‘Elephant Safari Park’, but that the elephants in our care are also protected and are not exploited by allowing guests to do dangerous or stupid things with the elephants for ‘photo shots’ that may result in an accident that could normally be avoided.

The Management
Elephant Safari Park - Taro
 

Nigel Mason
Managing Director

• Bali’s ONLY Herd of 27 Elephants (including baby’s)
• Elephant Information Center and Museum
• Botanical Garden Setting & Orchid Displays
• Elephant Jungle Rides
• 200 Seat International Restaurant
• Elephant Related Gift & Photo Shop
• FREE Elephant Show with Admission
• Membership to World Zoo Association
• The Only Complete Elephant Experience in Bali

Subject: Special visitors during the D8 Conference

The Turkish Prime Ministers wife Mrs Beep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish Trade Ministers wife visit The Elephant Safari Park at Taro.
Whilst accompanying their husbands for the D-8 Summit being held in Nusa Dua last week the Turkish Prime Ministers wife and the Turkish Trade Ministers wife took time out to visit The Elephant Safari Park at Taro on Saturday the 13th of May.
They delighted the staff and management by praising the park and added how magnificent and first class the entire operation was run and how much they had enjoyed their time with the Elephants and walking through the Botanical Gardens. Click here to see photo!

By: Johnny Landung - Air Paradise In Flight Magazine - September 2004

Bali is not perhaps the first place you’d expect to find one of the finest fossil specimens of Mammuthus Primigenius, better known as Woolly Mammoth, but then Bali Elephant Safari Park is full of surprises. ‘I brought the Mammoth from a traveling Ice Age Show that used to tour the states – they only wanted to lease him at first, but finally agreed to sell him,’ says Managing Director Nigel Mason.

8 years ago, Nigel Mason knew elephants were big, grey creatures with trunks, but that was about it. At the time, he was looking for something new to channel his ample energies into and by chance came upon a hapless chap who’d brought ten Sumatran elephants over to Bali and was now having a hell of a time trying to care for them.

“Elephants are some of the most difficult creatures in the world to care for – they have really sensitive stomachs and are prone to skin problems, plus they can be incredibly destructive to the surrounding environment, so this guy was just having a nightmare and so were the elephants.’ So he bought the enterprise, a whole load of literature on elephants and set about creating one of the best elephant parks in the world.

The Sumatran elephant is the smallest in the world, up to five times smaller than its cantankerous and aggressive African cousin. It’s much easier to train and has a gentler nature, but to the people of Sumatra who share its territory (and are rapidly transforming that territory from forest to cultivated land) it is seen as little more than a pest. ‘Elephants are migratory,’ Nigel explains, ‘they follow fixed routes that may take 12 months to complete. The problem is, when they get back to where they started a year ago, the forest might be gone, replaced with an oil palm plantation for example – and believe me, oil palms are very tasty for \an elephant, so suddenly people’s livelihoods are being destroyed.

Extinction is a real possibility for the Sumatran elephant – the vast primary forests that used to characterize its home have all but disappeared, and conservation efforts are frustrated by bureaucracy and lack of will. This means that Bali Elephant Safari Park is more than just a commercial venture – it’s conservation too. ‘We have 17 elephants at the moment and we’re in the process of getting 10 more. When that happens we can start a breeding program – you can see the kind of environment we provide them with, but, believe me, some of the so called ‘elephant parks’ I’ve come across are more like concentration camps – no grass or trees or water, just dust.

When Nigel first saw the area of land in the village of Taro near Ubud that is now the site of the Elephant Park, it was just this, little more than dust. Now it’s practically and Eden, with a bewildering variety of tropical flora, some even imported from Australia. ‘We created all of this from scratch, transplanting trees, laying turf, putting in a man-made lake, making these ‘elephant friendly’ paths out of a mix of local stone which is more pliable than concrete – it took some time, but you can see the result.’ Indeed I can. Sitting in the raised bale style pavilion that houses the park’s restaurant and shop, I’m looking out on a beautifully landscaped garden. An elephant is taking a leisurely bath in the lake, others are eating palm (elephants spend 2/3 of their lives feeding) while their fellows carry visitors on a short safari of the surrounding area, perched on simple wooden platforms. The park’s staff of Mahouts (elephant tenders) are to be seen everywhere and the affection they hold for their charges is clear to see.

Earlier, 3 of the elephants, a bull and two females, had performed a bired show, including basketball (check out the slam dunk) and demonstrations of balance. ‘W never force the elephants to do things they don’t want to – it’s only a few of them that enjoy performing and it’s more about demonstrating their intelligence – they’re never goaded and they seem to enjoy the attention!’

Back in 1999 when the park was still fairly nascent, two conceptual Russian artists based in New York came out to Bali in a bid to teach some of the elephants to paint, taking the notion of ‘abstract expressionism’ to its logical conclusion. The then 2 year old Ramona proved to have an unsuspected artistic streak, producing flamboyant canvases characterized by broad brushstrokes and careful use of colour. One of her paintings sold in New York for $2500… You may well be lucky enough to catch her working her latest masterpiece when you visit.

‘What we offer is really a complete elephant experience as you can see, we’re able to be really interactive and guests can get close to the elephants in a way that they never could in a traditional safari part,’ Nigel explains.

What he’s created is an environment that manages to provide a sterling service not only to its guests, but its lumbering residents too – and it’s a service that is far from merely cosmetic. ‘This whole place is basically zero impact environmentally speaking – actually we’ve brought a lot to the area, working closely with the people who live here. We employ them as staff and also buy food for the elephants from them.’ This reciprocal relationship, together with an eco-friendly approach to design which includes an in-built water recycling system that also benefits local people, makes Bali Elephant Safari Park a model business. It also attracts high profile guests like Jean Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren (do European action stars have a thing about elephants?) and even the Beckhams and it’s not difficult to see why. Like the elephants it provides a home for, this is a quiet garden oasis you won’t quickly forget.

Johnny Landung – Air Paradise In flight Magazine, September 2004
 

By Diana Shearin - Bali Adventure Tours Media Release
November 14, 2002

In spite of Bali's recent tragedy and gross effects on the tourism economy, Bali Adventure Tours has confirmed they are still committed to embark on an uplifting rescue mission to save 10 rare and endangered female Sumatran elephants from the region of Riau, deep in Sumatra. The mission will include saving 2-orphaned babies, bringing the 10 strong herd to the safe haven of the Elephant Safari Park in Taro, Central Bali.

The salvage effort to release the elephants from Sumatra, where they suffer from dehydration and starvation due to the lack of natural resources, has been the driving force behind the tour operators Elephant Safari Park Foundation. The Foundations efforts have enabled the transmigration, conservation and rehabilitation of these, and other Sumatran Elephants, over the Parks' 5 year history. 

The inspiring story and salvage mission has since attracted the attention of an international wildlife documentary film crew who will cover the mammoth event and document the incredible voyage from Sumatra to the elephant's new home in Bali.

Anticipated to screen to a global audience of millions, the voyage will see park sanctuary owners, conservationists and wildlife advocates, Australian Nigel Mason and his Balinese wife, Yanie Mason accompany the film crew into remote and harsh regions over a complex six day journey.

"We have been preparing the 10 new elephants for this incredible journey for some time and are thrilled to be able to save this beautiful species from uncertain future. Two of the elephants are literally 'babes from the woods' at only 1.5 years and 2 years of age. The youngest of the two is orphaned and at just 1 meter tall she is still being hand fed," said Nigel Mason.

The salvage mission has involved a team of experienced elephant handlers who have been preparing the elephants for the homecoming trip, feeding, tending, and vet checking their medical and health conditions to ensure safety before the lengthy journey.

An enormous logistics exercise for the journey to be accomplished is required. The 30 person team will traverse three islands of Sumatra, Java and Bali in a convoy of buses, plus use helicopter transfers, five long haul trucks, two ferries and an incredible amount of elephant food totalling 9,000kg during the 2,500 km long voyage.

The journey will be a non-stop effort direct from Sumatra to Bali to minimize any trauma to the elephants before they reach Bali's only elephant sanctuary, The Elephant Safari Park, where 17 previously rescued elephants are also housed. 

Funds formerly raised from the parks' Elephant Foundation scheme has assisted Bali Adventure Tours in bringing the elephants to Bali, helping to save and preserve the rare and endangered Sumatran elephant species.

The Bali Adventure Tours team will depart for Sumatra early 2004 to begin the rescue. Click here for more info and photos

Subject: Painting for Peanuts - and Big Money

By R. Daniel Foster - Special to The Christian Science Monitor.
October 25, 2002 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1025/p19s01-alar.html

TARO, BALI - Ramona dips her brush in a bucket of bright acrylic paint, splashing a cobalt streak onto a white canvas.

A few more strokes and she switches to orange, then green. Ten minutes later, she steps back to reveal a tangle of strokes that will fetch $300 to $900.

That's not bad for a 7-year-old – especially a 7-year-old elephant. Ramona is one in a long line of pachyderm painters turning out abstract pieces that have been auctioned at Christie's for up to $2,000. She lives at the Elephant Safari Park near Taro, Bali. And she paints when inspiration strikes, according to Jumadi, her handler. (The elephant artists also work for peanuts, mud baths, and verbal praise.)

Their work has been exhibited at several museums worldwide. And recently, the handlers of a dozen or so painting pachyderms in Asia formed a website, hosted by Novica.com, to sell such poetically titled works as "Rhythm of Freedom," "Fresh Morning," and "Deeply From my Heart." Within two months, sales broke $100,000. Half of the profits go to elephant-rescue sanctuaries in Southeast Asia.

True, these seemingly resourceful beasts had some help. But it's plausible, say those who pour the paint and tack up the canvas, that elephant artists enjoy painting and expressing their distinct styles.

"For many years, zookeepers have known that elephants both in captivity and in the wild will pick up sticks and doodle in the dirt," says Mia Fineman, an art historian from New York and co-author of the book "When Elephants Paint." "Elephants are highly intelligent animals who don't particularly like to stand around all day."

An elephant's trunk, she adds, is sophisticated, containing more than 50,000 muscles, with finger-like appendages at the tip that aid in flicking a dime, stabilizing a log – or turning out a deconstructed Jackson Pollack. To paint, elephants hold brushes with their trunk tips or grasp a piece of bamboo tied to a brush. Some handlers choose colors for their charges, others allow elephants to dip and splash at will. Handlers may first guide the brush to the canvas and steer the process by navigating a tusk. Then, they let elephants paint by themselves.

Many elephant artists were rescued from harsh circumstances, like teak logging, in which they were drugged to work long hours. Up to 50,000 Asian elephants roam the wild, down from 100,000 at the turn of the 20th century, the World Conservation Union reports. Many of the 16,000 domesticated elephants in Southeast Asia are threatened by ivory poachers.

Fineman traveled to Asia in 1997 with Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid, Russian-born conceptual artists who began teaching elephants to paint the same year.

The pair formed three elephant-art academies, with headquarters based at the Lampang Elephant Art Academy outside Chiang Mai. Since then, elephant art has been shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia, the Berkeley Art Museum at the University of California, and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

But critics may ask: Is it really art?

"What Komar and Melamid do is often a parody of art or painting and the process in which we evaluate art," says Rosetta Brooks, editor of Smart Collector magazine. "They're more interested in the ideas generated by art, rather that what art looks like," she adds. "Had Novica.com sold the paintings omitting the fact they were created by elephants, people may have responded badly to the work. But given there's a story around it, the work becomes interesting."

Fineman maintains that elephants from different regions have distinct styles. Central Thai elephants, for example, prefer cooler colors (blues, greens, and indigos) applied with broad sweeping strokes. "When I view a painting, I can usually tell what region it's from, and which elephant created it," Fineman says.

Brooks says that's not unusual. "A cat in England functions quite differently than a cat in America. But if an art historian began saying that this particular elephant's creation is very much like an early Picasso ... then you'd get yourself into a lot of trouble."

Subject: Ramona the Painting Elephant - Featured in Voyage Magazine

OWNING A RAMONA - This Artist Doesn't Paint for Peanuts
By Catherine Ryan - Novica Web site Editor-In-Chief.

Her abstract expressionist art sells for thousands of dollars at international exhibits and charity auctions. Some say she paints á la Jackson Pollock; others claim she has the flair of Franz Kline.

There is one thing, however, on which all of her patrons will agree, Ramona, a 2,000-pound painting elephant, is beyond compare.

At the tender age of seven, Ramona arguably has become one of Bali's most famous painters. At her tropical outdoor residence, Ramona appears genuinely inspired. Delicately wrapping the tip of her trunk around a brush, she paints effusively yet methodically, pausing to look at her canvas in progress before choosing each new color. She seems to enjoy her work immensely. And work, after all, is what Asian elephants need these days.

The Asian elephant is an endangered species; in all of Indonesia, for example, fewer than 2,800 survive. Ramona's paintings have helped raise awareness about the plight of the species, and her earnings have helped to feed and care for other endangered elephants.

Yanie Mason and her husband, Nigel, have provided sanctuary to Ramona and 17 other elephants by building the Elephant Safari Park, a beautiful compound nestled between rice fields and forest near Taro, Bali. There, visitors can commission a Ramona painting, request a private ride through the countryside, or even plan a wedding - complete with lavishly attired elephants.

On a purely esthetic note, some say Ramona's art is beautiful; others question whether elephant paintings can really be considered art at all. I would critique Ramona's work as youthful, exuberant, and lacking polish. Dare I say, however, that I'd give her work a thumbs-up as being every bit as fun, artistic, and collectible as the abstract art by some of our more renowned homo sapiens. As for home décor, the paintings certainly make for great dinner-party conversation.

"Ramona is an artist, with a true artistic temperament," her caretakers contend. "She paints only when she is inspired. When she lacks inspiration, not even Jumadi, her handler, can coax her to the canvas."

If Ramona could realize how her efforts are helping to provide for her kin, I doubt there'd be any end to the creative efforts of this pachydermic Picasso.

Ramona's paintings can now be viewed online at www.novica.com.

Subject: Painting Elephants - USA Today Newspaper

USA TODAY
August 23, 2002

ARTS & CULTURE - TRUMPETING THE LATEST IN ART

By Maria Puente
USA Today Staff Writer

The latest hot commodity in the online art world is an elephant painting -- a painting by an elephant.  Novica.com, a world arts-and- crafts Web site, has sold nearly 300 "abstract expressionist" paintings since June, raising more than $50,000 for elephant rescue centers in Thailand and Bali.

Novica has "hired" 16 pachyderm painters to produce paintings for the site, all priced between $290 and $880. (Leonardo Di Caprio bought one for $2,000 at a charity auction for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.)

Those who fear and loathe abstract art might feel less intimidated by the colorful daubing of Dumbo. Elephants, who grasp the paintbrush in their trunk, can help "teach people in an easy way how to begin to understand conceptual and contemporary art," says L.A. art critic/teacher Rosetta Brooks, who calls the paintings "a great deal."

Subject: Painting elephants featured in Northwest Airlines magazine

Northwest Airlines
WORLD TRAVELLER
September 2002

PAINTING FOR PEANUTS AND PACHYDERMS
By Vi Ho

Seven-year-old Ramona stands in front of her white canvas, feeling contemplative.  As she glances at her palette, she carefully decides which color she will choose for her next painting, and slowly picks up the paintbrush - with her trunk.

Ramona is one of 16 elephants painting for Novica.com (the National Geographic-affiliated world arts marketplace), and of course, is painting for peanuts.  The elephants are joining more than 1,700 participating fine artists and artisans from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

"The elephants' surprising talents emerged as an unexpected way to raise public awareness about these endangered animals and what we still may not realize about them," says Novica.com CEO Roberto Milk.  "In a way, the artists are helping themselves."

In 1998, New York-based Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid traveled to Thailand, India and Bali to teach a handful of elephants to paint - a skill that could raise funds for the rescue centers that cared for them.  (The first recorded incidence of artistic elephants occurred in Berlin in the 1930s.)

With fewer and fewer elephants surviving in South and Southeast Asia, Asian elephants are now on the endangered species list.  In Thailand, where the elephant population has fallen in the past 100 years from 100,000 to as few as 1,300, several significant rescue centers have emerged.  Likewise, in Bali, a beautiful sanctuary now serves as home to 16 of Indonesia's luckier pachyderms.

And what do the art critics think of the elephants' creations?  "Hang it on the wall and it looks beautiful, has an interesting story behind it, and can be appreciated on several different levels," New York art historian Mia Fineman says.  "Elephants are motivated by something beyond functionality, and this is called art."

Biographies and photographs of all 1,700 artists - including the elephants - are available online at www.novica.com.

Subject: Painting Elephants - Featured in Press Telegram

Long Beach Press Telegram
August 27, 2002

PAINTING PACHYDERMS
16 Asian elephants put creations on canvas in an attempt to brush away the looming danger of extinction.
By Theo Douglas - Staff Writer

They've been farmers, soldiers, lumberjacks, entertainers, home wreckers, and like many of us periodically unemployed. Now, more than a dozen endangered, out-of-work Asian elephants can add another entry to their resumes: They're professional artists. In a joint venture teaming two sardonic New York-based Russian artists, two Asian elephant sanctuaries, and one Los Angeles-based Web site, Novica.com, paintings completed by 16 Asian elephants in Bali and Thailand can now be purchased online.

This isn't just another showcase of native arts and crafts gone commercial. Half the proceeds from each of these paintings, which sell for $290 to $880, go to benefit the elephants themselves, which are in grave danger of extinction despite their singular capabilities. The story of how all this happened could make a mountain of manuscript as high as an elephant's eye.

"First, we got curious when we learned elephants paint in the first place," recalls Russian émigré Alexander Melamid, who set out down the long road to Southeast Asia in the late 1990s. "We didn't invent the idea. We just introduced this to the Asian countries. But first, we learned how elephants are trained to paint."

Melamid, of Brooklyn, and his collaborator, artist Vitaly Komar, visited a zoo in Toledo, Ohio, to learn how elephants are taught to paint. Then, using a series of connections they'd made, the men took the idea overseas. The added benefit of saving elephant lives became evident en route.

"It totally came accidentally. We had no prior knowledge of elephant conservation," says Melamid, who was moved by the work the elephant sanctuaries were doing. He and his partner periodically have sold elephant paintings through their own organization, the Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project, and, like Novica, send a portion of the proceeds back overseas.

Then, in 2002, Novica Web site Editor-In-Chief Catherine Ryan learned of the painting elephants, and mounted what is considered to be the first large-scale online sale of elephant art ever.

"I was in Indonesia last March interviewing some of the artists we already work with, and my plane was delayed three days," Ryan says. "I asked, 'Are there any elephants in Bali?" and they said there were, then added, 'Did you know these elephants can paint?' "

At the time, Ryan didn't know that elephants can paint, but in reality hers was not a new discovery - just a new application. Elephants in natural surroundings have long been known to pick up sticks and doodle in the dirt with their trunks.

The pachyderm proboscis has 40,000 muscles - compared with 660 in the entire human body - so wielding a paintbrush is no problem for a beast, which, with proper training, can pull a house down. Filling a canvas often takes an elephant just minutes.

Painting pachyderms have surfaced several times in the 20th century alone - in a 1930s circus in Berlin; in the 1970s and 1980s at the Phoenix Zoo; and currently at the Los Angeles Zoo, where an elephant periodically turns out canvases. In the case of the Arizona elephant, whose name was Ruby, she raised $100,000 a year by painting, Ryan says, money the non-profit zoo then put toward boarding its charges.

"She started painting for what we refer to as behavioral enrichment. And then, once we worked that out, people wanted to buy the paintings," says Phoenix Zoo spokeswoman Amy Barwegen. "Unfortunately, she passed away in 1998 and we don't have any kind of ongoing program with elephants that paint."

In Southeast Asia, the situation is dire, everyone connected with Novica.com's project agrees. Asian elephants were the workhorses of logging industries there, through much of the 1980s. In response to conservation efforts, many countries there curtailed or ceased logging. In Thailand, officials banned logging in 1989, throwing more than 2,000 domesticated elephants out of work.

It may sound funny - an elephant cashing an unemployment check - but there's actually no such safety net in Southeast Asia. Elephants there often are considered livestock, with little legal provision for their care. Many were simply turned loose when logging - and their period of usefulness - ended. Today in Thailand, half of the country's 4,000 Asian elephants are semi-domesticated, out of work, and facing uncertain futures. On Oct. 18, the National Geographic Channel will turn its lenses on the problem and on the partial solution of having elephants paint - when it airs "Vanishing
Giants."

"These elephants get abandoned, and there's not enough forest for them to return to. Since the (logging) ban, their population has (declined) by 30 percent," says "Giants" filmmaker Jennifer Hile, who filmed much of her special in Thailand. "All that's left for them is tourism, elephant shows, and elephant rides."

A much smaller number of elephants rescued by sanctuaries have the option of painting. Whether or not elephants like to paint is still somewhat open to debate. Further, because they're colorblind, their handlers actually select which color the elephants paint in. Hile, who has watched the elephants work, says she thinks they're neutral to the idea of painting, but many zookeepers see the practice as a way to stave off the boredom of captivity.

The artists Melamid and Komar share this perspective and add more than a touch of irony. They feel the idea that paintings by animals can be sold for money makes a snarky statement about the preciousness of the human art world.

"They're as bad or good as human painters. The point is, art is stupid in the first place," says Melamid, who nevertheless sees its purpose as a tool for, in this case, conservation. "We're still looking - everyone is looking - for the innocence, the noble savage, going down to the elephants, the
innocent, uncorrupted elephants."

It's a tangled set of motives that produced this continental collaboration between members of the New York art world scene, Southeast Asian mahouts, or elephant handlers, endangered elephants, and cyberspace entrepreneurs.

The results, however, are speaking for themselves: Since Novica began selling the paintings June 17, 282 have found homes. Total sales are more than $100,720 to date, with half of that going back to the elephant sanctuaries. In some cases, people are actually buying more than one painting; Venice resident Maria Gutierrez, a systems analyst for Los Angeles, has purchased three canvases from Novica.

"I love talking about these paintings. You buy the tuna that says 'dolphin safe" and you try to be careful about eating (pork) and you wonder how much of a difference does that make?" Gutierrez says. "But this absolutely does make a difference in helping the animals. I'm pleased to pay several hundreds of dollars for a piece of art, and I really can't think of a better cause."

Free-lance art critic Rosetta Brooks agrees. The paintings, she says, are intriguing abstract canvases by themselves but when coupled with the story of their creation, Melamid and Komar's motivations, and ongoing conservation efforts, they become unique works of art.

"I think the real story needs to be told, so that when people buy these paintings they understand the story," says Brooks, who is a faculty member at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design. "Yes, it's art, but it's really incredible art."

Subject: Painting Elephants  - Featured in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
Monday, August 19, 2002

(This is the second painting elephant story in the last two months by this
newspaper -- this new story ran in the style section Monday)

UNFORGETTABLE WORKS OF ART
By Patricia Sheridan

Those who can, paint; those who can't, wait. That is the way it is for many of the estimated 16,000 domesticated elephants trying to scratch out a living in Southeast Asia.

In Thailand, the demise of the logging industry has put thousands of these elephants out on the streets, looking for a livelihood with their mahouts (trainers). Some become buskers, playing the harmonica or doing tricks, while others give rides to tourists. But there just aren't enough entertainment opportunities to go around. Though not all pachyderms possess Picasso's talent, the ones with an eye for composition are painting to keep their out-of-work brethren alive. Russian conceptual artists Alex Melamid and Vitaly Komar, now living in New York City, heard of the elephants' plight and in 1998 founded the Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project. The human artists taught the giant mammals to manipulate a brush on canvas and create animal abstract expressionism.

Today the Lampang Elephant Academy of Art at the Thai Conservation Center in Thailand trains the talented and sells the paintings to help support elephants and their mahouts, who are down and out of luck.

Each elephant artist has a unique technique. For example, Ganesh likes to work with a color wash background. To view or buy their work go to www.novica.com.

Subject: Elephants featured in prestigious Robb Report Magazine

ROBB REPORT "For the Luxury Lifestyle"
September 2002

TRUNK SHOW
By Sheila J. Gibson

Since 1988, artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid have been teaching laid-off loggers in Thailand and Bali to paint abstract art, and in that short time, these neophytes have established thriving professional careers.

However, while their art may be colorful and eye-pleasing, it is not purchased on its merits alone.  The painters, you see, are elephants; some were once used to haul felled trees but were abandoned by their owners after the logging trade in Southeast Asia went bust.

Elephant art is not a new phenomenon.  Canvases painted by the late pachyderm Ruby reportedly raised more than $100,000 annually for the Phoenix Zoo.  In that same vein, the art produced by Komar and Melamid's proteges will benefit the Asian elephant, an endangered species whose population has sharply dwindled over the last century.

Novica.com (877-866-8422, www.Novica.com), a fine arts and home decor web site that is affiliated with National Geographic, has signed a stable of more than a dozen Asian elephants trained by the two artists to paint original acrylics.  Proceeds from the sale of the art fund elephant rescue centers in Asia.