Artwork / Crime Against Nature / It Takes a Herd to Raise a Child (African Elephant)

It Takes a Herd to Raise a Child (African Elephant)
2012
acrylic on panel
10 x 10 inches
Whenever I see elephants I think of my old friend who loves these animals and of a disappointing conversation I overheard at the elephant exhibit at the zoo in which one kid said to another: “I hope the girl isn’t the bigger one because that would just be sad.” Below is the text from the book Crime Against Nature that goes with this image.
Children can even be raised by an extended family of individuals brought together by blood or by choice.
Like many ungulates, male and female African elephants live in separate groups. Led by a matriarch, female herds are composed of related and unrelated elephants, all of them working together to raise the calves.
