My latest ceramic sculpture – a Sumatran elephant. It’s a relative of the Asian Elephant. Most interesting facts? They use infrasonic sounds to communicate with one another! The female Sumatran elephant doesn’t have tusks. She has short protrusions called tushes which won’t grow longer than 3-4 inches and are usually hidden under her upper lip. Elephants are unique in being the only animal with four knees. Like other elephants the Sumatran elephant cannot jump – even with their four knees! Unlike other elephants the highest point on a Sumatran elephant is the top of their head – take a look at that forehead!
All finished – and again, like the white rhino, Nile crocodile, and mud woman sculptures, this is an experiment in depicting flowing water and mud evolving into the elephant’s bust. What’s a little different this time is the “water” part of the sculpture flows from the elephant’s trunk and not from some unknown source. She’s creating herself! When she’s glazed she’ll be mostly shades-of-blue for the water and earth-tones depicting the “mud” that forms her face and trunk.
In the “finished…a few more liberties taken…but, but…I’m an artist” category: I totally messed-up getting the tip of the trunk correct. Sumatran elephants are known for having a very pronounced “finger” at the end of their trunks and I missed that. Check out these sites for more interesting facts about Sumatran elephants; Wikipedia and EleAid