Elephant poaching in the Garden of Eden

By Clara Dutton
artist

I first fell in love with elephants two years ago on a trip to Laos, where I visited an elephant sanctuary and had the pleasure of photographing and interacting with the beautiful creatures. As an artist, my main concern was the elegance of their bodies, but I was also moved by their interactions with one another and with their human caretakers. When I returned to the states, I began a series of elephant paintings in an effort to capture the beauty I had encountered in Asia. My passion for elephants grew as I learned all the fascinating intricacies of their relationships with one another. They develop strong friendships, and mourn loved ones. Herds bury their dead under branches and leaves. Elephants taught me that other creatures are capable of the same love and grief as humans, which made my subsequent discovery even more heartbreaking.

One day, as I was looking through pages of elephant images on a search engine, I noticed an aerial photograph of two elephants lying next to one another. I clicked on the photograph, and in its larger version I realized that they were both lying in a pool of blood. The photograph was accompanying an article about an elephant massacre, where ivory poachers had slaughtered a large number of the animals for their tusks. A close-up view of one of the bodies showed an elephant with his face completely cut off, the tusks removed, and the trunk discarded. It made me physically ill. It was devastating to realize that direct cruelty and mistreatment of animals still exists on such a large scale. Perhaps I was naïve to believe that such blatant disrespect for creation was a thing of the past. Sadly, it is very much a thing of the present, as illegal ivory is in high demand on the black market, and poaching remains a growing problem in many countries.

As a Christian, I react to and assess situations within the context of my faith. For me, elephants were no longer just a subject for pretty paintings, but a symbol of how far mankind has fallen from his intended role as a guardian of this planet. I began to refer to my series as "The Garden of Eden," and included some of the disturbing content that I had been exposed to myself. I knew that such gruesome paintings would never sell, but I no longer had an interest in decorative wall hangings. Art is my way of communicating, and what is happening to this planet needs to be communicated.

Our responsibilities as humans are undeniable. The Bible's Garden of Eden is a metaphor of God's intention for us on this planet. We were put here to take care of creation, not take advantage of it. Perhaps the earth wasn't created in a mere seven days, and maybe God didn't close a garden gate on Adam and Eve after they tasted the proverbial apple. Whether you take the story literally or not, the theme remains the same: we were given a perfect, harmonious planet and somewhere along the line we forgot our role as caretakers. We are fallible creatures, but we have the ability to recognize these faults in each other and in ourselves. If we stop turning our heads from tragic realities such as elephant poaching, maybe we can help bring about the redemption of humanity so that God, and this planet, can forgive us.

Clara Dutton is an artist and post-baccalaureate student at Baylor University.

By Clara Dutton |  June 16, 2010; 12:15 PM ET Save & Share:                 
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