Death is an elephant...

Death is an elephant, torch-eyed and horrible, foam flanked and terrible. 

-Vachel Lindsay

 Some more retro-tastic glory from undergrad (2005-2006). I was really interested obsessed with elephants for a while and I was really draw to a line from the poem "The Congo: A Study of the Negro Race". It's an interesting performance poem. I vaguely remember selecting this poem to for something in primary school. I'm not going to post it here because it is quite long and is comes off as a bit racist. However, considering when it was written, I just consider it misguided and contentious. As a child, I didn't pick up on the racist elements, I just really really liked the way is sounded and flowed, something which Mr Lindsay is famous for.

Anyway, obviously the quote above really stuck out to me and inspired me to do some sketches and an oil pastel drawing. 

I really like vibrant colours and would rather use different intensities to indicate depth rather than just darkening the base colour.

This last sketch was in response to a mix of poaching and a documentary on elephant memory.