The herd of Asian Elephant statues in front of the Gallery Dana Bay has grown in anticipation of next weekend’s World Elephant Day—a day, founded in 2012 by Patricia Sims and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand, that looks to bring awareness to elephant conservation efforts.
Since 2006, after father and son Marc and Mike Spits saw a baby elephant in Thailand that had lost part of its leg after stepping on a landmine, the art exhibition of elephant statues, called the Elephant Parade, has looked to spread education and awareness of the crisis the endangered species of Asian elephant faces
“These guys saw the horrible situation and decided to raise funds for veterinary research and care to get her a prosthetic leg,” Gallery Dana Bay owner Dana Yarger said. “It took four years, and she kept growing and growing and growing. She’s 16 now, maybe almost 17, fully grown, successful with a prosthetic leg, and she should live to her normal age of 55 or so.”
Yarger added that when the two men started the project, “many people were more commonly aware of the crisis of the African elephant slaughtered for ivory.”
“But the Asian elephant is in crisis because of the growth of civilization, roads, plantations, so their existence in the wild is challenged to the point they may be extinct in two generations,” according to Yarger.
The elephants on display in front of the gallery are considered “life-size” because they are the same size as the two-year-old elephant that sparked the Elephant Parade organization.
“The core of our program is education and awareness,” Yarger said. “That is especially through children’s eyes, they all love to see the elephants. But then the great broad variety of designs on the elephants creates the creative dialogue.”
“The creative dialogue is then what precipitates the question, why are these elephants here,” Yarger continued. “That gives us the opportunity to explain the environmental issues that affect the elephants, which by reference expresses our concern for the environment.”
Yarger added that while Dana Point is recognized as a “dolphin and whale town,” he sees the elephant akin to whales in terms of their role in the ecosystem and harbinger of ecological crises.
“If you can’t save the elephant, how do we save the Earth,” Yarger said. “And its long distant cousin, the ocean mammals, are in many ways related to the same situation, ocean water quality, global warming temperature, it’s all a challenge.”
Saving the Asian elephant from extinction is especially important because of its vital role in the ecosystem, Yarger explained.
“They are sometimes called the Earth’s gardener,” Yarger said. “While they are destructive, because they’re trying to eat, they knock down the trees, the roots open up, when the roots open up, the bugs come out and the birds eat that, and you know, the rest of the food chain.”
Katy Perry collaborated with a member of the Boys & Girls Club in Las Vegas to design a painted elephant for the Elephant Parade, an organization which looks to spread education and awareness for the endangered Asian elephant. Photo: Courtesy of Resorts World Las Vegas
Yarger added that while elephants wander the forest looking for more food, “they eat 200 pounds of vegetation, walk 50 miles and the digestive process ends up refertilizing the first.”
“So, you lose the elephant, you lose all those other things that depend on them,” Yarger said.
In celebration of the upcoming World Elephant Day, Gallery Dana Bay will display an elephant statue painted by singer Katy Perry.
“One of the elephants that we have now on tour, it’ll be here for maybe a week, and that was the elephant created by and inspired by Katy Perry,” Yarger said. “It’s cute and charming. I hope everybody comes to see it.”
Katy Perry is among many celebrity supporters of the Elephant Parade, including Tiësto, Lily Tomlin, Khloe Kardashian, Caesar Millan, Oliver Benjamin, Celine Dion, Ricky Gervais, Goldie Hawn, Tommy Hilfiger, Sir Richard Branson, Phil Collins and more.
From World Elephant Day, celebrated on Aug. 12, to National Elephant Appreciation Day on Sept. 22, some of the elephant statues typically on display in Dana Point will migrate to the Santa Monica Art Museum, where they will be on display in the gallery.
In addition to the Elephant Parade exhibition in Santa Monica and Katy Perry’s elephant on display, Gallery Dana Bay will host a paint-and-sip event Friday, Aug. 4, to celebrate World Elephant Day.
Yarger explained that the gallery’s elephant paint and sip events have “been a great thing for the community.”
The paint-and-sip event costs $100 per person and includes a blank elephant, brushes, a palette, food, beverages and painting instructions from a professional artist.
“In addition to the fun of painting an elephant … it’s interesting, the people that come together that live in Dana Point that don’t know each other and the stories they all bring in their affection for caring about elephants,” Yarger said.
Miniature replicas of the life-sized elephant statues are also for sale in the gallery, with proceeds supporting elephant conservation projects.
Tickets for the paint-and-sip are available on the Gallery Dana Bay website at gallerydanabay.com.