Throwback Thursday: Baby Elephant and Apple Tree

For this Throwback Thursday, I want to share this:

Because everyone needs to see a children's drawing of a baby elephant sitting under an apple tree at least once in their life.

-Cailey

Young Elephant

When I was really young, a baby Asian elephant was born at the Cincinnati Zoo. That baby elephant, Ganesh, sparked in me an interest in elephants that has yet to weaken or fade. My mom can tell stories about me begging to see Ganesh and the other "elephanents", and recognizing him even when he was no nearly full-grown. Even now, I make the elephants a priority when visiting the zoo.

Ganesh was named after an elephant-headed Hindu god, Ganesha. I don't know much about Ganesha, so I looked him up on wikipedia, which said he is revered as the lord of beginnings, god of intellect and wisdom, the remover of obstacles, he is the patron of the arts and sciences, and is honored at the beginning of Hindu rituals and ceremonies.

Now if you know anything about me, you know I'm not Hindu and I do not subscribe to any Hindu beliefs. But as an artist, I do think it's ironic that when I was a child my favorite thing to do was go and see baby Ganesh, named after the Hindu patron of the arts.

As I was writing this post I decided to look him up and see where he's living, and I discovered some very sad news: my old buddy Ganesh died at the Columbus Zoo back in 2005 ='(

I drew Young Elephant Print in honor of Ganesh, but the (not so recent) news of his death makes the drawing mean even more to me.

So Ganesh, I hope you can see this from where you are up in Elephant Heaven! I know elephants have an appreciation for art since you can buy pictures painted by elephants (which I fully intend to buy someday to hang on my living room wall), and I'm sure Ganesh does in particular. 

Here's to all our favorite art-loving pachyderms.

-Cailey

Three Elephants

Art is a really important thing to me. I believe that art is a big part of what makes the world beautiful, and if you've ever had a bad day you know how big a difference something like a beautiful sunset can make. So it wouldn't be stretching things too much to say that I'm in the business of making bad days better, because I like to make beautiful things that inspire joy and love and happiness, and therefore brighten up bad days

I've been coloring pictures all the time since I was a wee one, and I hear that I've also got some talent, besides my years of hard work and practice. So I started selling prints of my drawings, paintings, and photography on Etsy just over a month ago, and since then I've been actively working to promote my shop and get my work out there so people can see it. 

So today I'm going to feature my first Etsy listing, Three Elephants Print.

As I explain in the item description, I drew this piece from some photographs taken at the Cincinnati Zoo back when I was really little. My cousin Jen took me to see an elephant show, because I was (and still am!) a huge fan of the big beloved creatures. There's just something about them that is so majestic and at the same time mischievous and endearing. 

(unfortunately I could not locate any of the photos from that elephant show of my childhood, but here's an elephant picture of mine because one can never have too many pictures of elephants!)

Anyway, I made the drawing early last year, and I worked really hard on it. I used charcoal and soft pastels (also known as chalk pastels, because that's really what they are--glorified chalk) and eventually I decided it was perfect.

And then I heard about an art show in which I could enter two pieces and have them available for purchase. So I went through a whirlwind of framing and determining an appropriate price for a framed 9x12 pastel drawing. And then I had to come with a name. So I named it तीन हाथियों, or "Tīna Hāthiyōṁ" written phonetically. And for those like me who do not read or speak a lick of Hindi, google's translator tool says that means "Three Elephants". 

For Etsy, I decided to simply use the English translation, because I don't think most American buyers would think to look for something titled "Tīna Hāthiyōṁ". Just a thought. 

When I started CaileysArt, I decided that my three elephants would be a great first listing because the piece is done in pastel, one of my artistic fortes, and because it's from such a special early childhood memory of mine. 

And because (like I said earlier) one can never see too many pictures of elephants, here's one last parting gift:

-Cailey