A Little Smile
Regular price $100.00Title: A Little Smile
Collection: Little by Little
Zimbabwe Elephant Nursery, Zimbabwe. December 2019.
About:
In that moment,
Marked by the glimmer of her eye,
All her history poured out,
And into mine.
Elephants really do sense purpose. On this day I gained her trust. At first she was apprehensive. Cautious. But slowly after we spent more time spent together she began to realize why I was there - an ongoing portrait project to understand the emotions of Elephants.
This is Mana. She’s a young Elephant rescued by the Zimbabwe Elephant Nursery (ZEN) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (ifaw) late last year. Mana, along with one other Elephant “Tess”, were found totally stuck in the mud of a dried-up waterhole during a severe drought that badly affected Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe.
Her rescuers found the two Elephants totally immovable and suffering from dehydration and exhaustion. After hours of effort, they were finally able to remove them from the mud and airlift them to ZEN in the capital.
Since the rescue... they’ve both made resounding recoveries, but of course, they were shaken from the whole experience. Elephants have an enormous capacity to experience loss in their own way. Loss of loved ones is especially traumatic and you can sense it in their body language.
When I first met Mana I could literally feel the trauma she experienced, but it’s quite hard to describe, since I’m no Elephant and I never will be, so I’ll never fully understand her. But… I can try to interpret... What I could more easily recognize during my time with her is the power of her fellow Elephants to embrace. The others, rescues themselves, come together to bring up the spirit of one another. And from this ecosystem of care for one another… this is where we can learn something from Elephants. Their capacity to unconditionally look after those who they have never met before is remarkable.
Limited Edition: ONLY 250 COPIES of this portrait available exclusively through this print fundraiser.
Details: Each print includes a numbered certificate of authenticity with Donal’s signature. The certificate and the accompanying Print are authenticated by the uniquely numbered matching holograms found on both items.
Vibrant colors and only the highest quality hand-selected materials provide a unique impression of this young Elephant. Produced by theprintspace in the UK and printed on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 320 GSM museum-grade textured paper. Archival quality guaranteed to last 80 years.
Shipping: Worldwide Standard Flat Rate typically takes 5-10 days depending on your location.
Prints are sized to fit into standard frames (with or without a matt) that are available through multinational retailers such as IKEA or any local home goods store offering frames. They can also be displayed without a frame and look just as great with the white border.
THE FUNDRAISER:
Every year in Central Africa infant Elephants become separated from their herd due to human causes – the mission of the Zimbabwe Elephant Nursery (ZEN) is to rescue, rehabilitate, and release these young spirits back into the wild once they’re strong enough to survive on their own.
As a supplement for the milk they’d normally get from their mothers, the team at ZEN has had to develop a substitute. And... Rescued Orphan Elephants Drink A LOT of Milk!
By purchasing a limited edition print YOU will provide ZEN with funds for 15 Bottles of Milk to support infant Elephants in need during these incredibly difficult times.
Thank you for supporting Elephants <3
