By Thai elephant Bai-Tong, this beautiful painting will bring beauty and the spirit of conservation into your home. Bai-Tong chooses hues of green, teal, pink, yellow, and red for this lively and vertical composition.
Asian elephants are an endangered species. By making the Asian elephants' paintings widely accessible to the general public, NOVICA hopes to help increase awareness, encourage conservation, and raise significant funds to assist endangered elephants throughout Asia. For more information, please refer to the elephant's biography.
This original painting features the Elephant Conservation Center's seal of authenticity. It arrives unframed.
Please note: The elephants hold the paintbrush carefully, by the tip of their trunk - which is also the elephants' delicate nose area. Slight smudging, and an occasional water droplet here and there are to be expected on most elephant paintings. We like to consider that these imperfections add to the conversation value of each piece.
Made in Thailand
Acrylic on paper
Arrives unframed
Authentic artwork featuring the official seal of the Thai Elephant Conservation Center as well as the elephant's name
Bai-tong is the youngest student in the elephant training school. She enjoys painting so much that she sometimes takes a firm grip on the paintbrush and refuses to return it to the trainer.
Bai-tong is a friendly little female who gets along well with people. When she arrived at the Thai Elephant Conservation... Center-TECC on June 9, 2010, she was only about a year old. She had been given to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation because she needed special care to stay healthy.
After a thorough checkup by veterinarians, she met the mahout who would care for her and train her. He had to stay close to the little calf day and night. Despite her young age, she follows his orders very well.
Today she is the youngest student in the TECC elephant training school. Each morning, the pachyderms line up according to age, so she is the last in line. With her trunk, she grasps the tail of the elephant ahead of her and they all parade to the show field, to the delight of visitors to the center.
When she is in a good mood, she will shake her head and rock back and forth so the bell on her neck jingles. On chilly mornings, she gently tests the water with her foot or trunk, refusing to take a shower if the water is very cold. Her mahout must then bring her water in buckets to bathe. After her shower, she races home for breakfast. The intelligent little elephant has a preference for corn.
Bai-tong enjoys painting so much that she sometimes takes a firm grip on the paintbrush and refuses to return it to the trainer. She is much loved by the TECC staff and every tourist who has seen her.
For centuries, elephants earned their keep by hauling trees for Asia's logging industry. Deforestation and logging restrictions led to massive unemployment for the elephants, with the result that many, dependent on keepers who could no longer afford to care for them, simply died of neglect. The Asian elephant population dwindled, and these magnificent animals became an endangered species.
In 1998, searching for new ways to raise rescue funds and worldwide public awareness, elephant expert and author Richard Lair, advisor to the royal Thai Elephant Conservation Center (TECC), conceived of a novel plan. He invited to Asia two media savvy, New York-based conceptual artists — Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid — to help him create a publicity campaign while training rescued Asian elephants to paint. Art Historian Mia Fineman traveled with Komar and Melamid to Asia, helping write "When Elephants Paint," a fascinating book about the venture. (The book notes that wild elephants naturally doodle on the ground with twigs and pebbles — a proclivity that might explain the ease with which they take to painting.)
As a result of Lair's project, numerous elephants learned to paint in Asia, and hundreds if not thousands of news reports have brought the story of this endangered species to the world's attention.
Today, under the ongoing tutelage of Richard Lair, ten of the TECC's 48 elephants participate in regular painting sessions. During these sessions, the sanctuary elephants stand contentedly before easels, entertaining themselves by wrapping the tips of their trunks around artists' brushes, dipping those brushes into buckets of colorful paints, and then sweeping the paint up, down, and across paper canvases.
The TECC artists are now the most famous paintings elephants in the world. Their paintings, compared by some critics to the works of such renowned abstract expressionist artists as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Franz Kline, have been exhibited internationally and have auctioned for thousands of dollars apiece at such august venues as Christie's.
In 2002, Novica offered to assist Richard Lair by featuring the Asian elephants' paintings online, making them more accessible to the general public. Since then, a new wave of media attention has again focused on the plight of the Asian elephant, and thousand more people have purchased paintings — helping raise considerable funds for the TECC in Thailand, and for a separate rescue center in Bali.
Richard Lair provides Novica with the TECC's highest quality elephant paintings, directly overseeing special "Novica Sessions" with the TECC elephants. For these sessions, the elephants paint on French archival paper, using high quality acrylic paints. (This in contrast to the elephant paintings sold in Asia to tourists — typically composed of low-quality paints on non-archival paper.) Lair completes the process by embossing each painting with an official stamp of authenticity. For Novica, Lair comments that he rejects all but the most intriguing and unblemished paintings, as an additional way to thank Novica's customers for their considerable support, while providing a high quality painting in return.
Interestingly, the TECC is also home to the Thai Elephant Orchestra, the world's first elephant orchestra and the first orchestra in which animals play instruments (as opposed to their own song) with "serious musical intent." The Thai Elephant Orchestra, under the direction of Richard Lair and Dave Soldier, has produced three fundraising CDs, available through Amazon.
Meanwhile, Richard Lair continues his efforts to raise awareness and financial support for the elephants of Asia. In 2008, Lair traveled to Nepal to teach yet another group of eager elephant artists to paint, in the hopes that they, too, would enjoy learning how to help fund their own upkeep.
Novica asked Lair about the legitimacy of a much-talked-about 2008 elephant "self portrait" (the making of which, at a different Thai elephant camp, was captured on video). Lair explained that the elephant's "mahout" (handler) clearly directed the painting, standing just off-camera, holding the elephant's "tush" (small, sensitive tusk) to carefully guide the elephant's trunk in precise flourishes, creating the sensational result.
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WOMEN
S
M
L
XL
XXL
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
BUST
35 - 36
37 - 38
39 - 41
42 - 44
46 - 48
WAIST
27 - 28
29 - 30
31 - 33
34 - 36
38 - 40
HIPS
37 - 38
39 - 40
42 - 43
45 - 46
49 - 50
MEN
S
M
L
XL
XXL
CHEST
36 - 38
39 - 41
42 - 44
46 - 48
50 - 52
WAIST
30 - 32
32 - 34
35 - 37
38 - 41
43 - 45
NECK
14 - 14.5
15 - 15.5
16 - 16.5
17 - 17.5
18 - 18.5
SLEEVE
32.5
33.5
34.5
35.5
36.5
FINDING YOUR SIZE
Take your measurements with the tape measure over your under garments. If your measurements fall between sizes you may prefer the next larger size. Inseam, skirt and dress lengths vary by style and will be listed in the item description. Our sweaters are knit in standard American sizes, however actual measurements vary by style.
BUST / CHEST
Measure around the fullest part of chest under the arms and over the shoulder blades keeping the tape measure level.
WAIST
Measure around the smallest part of the waist keeping the tape measure comfortably loose. Most garments use the low waist measurement noted below.
LOW WAIST
Measure around the body approximately 1.5" below the natural waist (above). This is the area where most pants and skirts actually fit.
HIPS
Standing with your heels together, measure around the fullest part of the body approx 7"-8" below the waist.
NECK
Measure around the base of the neck keeping the tape measure comfortably loose.
SLEEVE
Bend elbow slightly and starting at the center back of the neck, measure across the shoulder, to the elbow and down to the wrist.
INSEAM
Our standard inseam length for women is 32" and 34" for men; however inseam measurements will vary slightly by style.
Belts with buckles are measured in inches that correspond to a waist size however, most people do not wear belts on the waist, they wear them closer to the hips. A buckle belt measurement is take from the end of the "pin" of the buckle to the middle hole on the belt. Generally there are 5 holes for size adjustment, with a 1" space between each, so the middle hole will the be average size of the belt.
For at tie belt (no buckle) measure the belt portion end to end and half of the tie portion. This again is the medium size of the belt.
For a soft fabric tie belt it can be called "1 size fits most" and the entire length of the belt should be measured and listed.
See buckle/tie belt size standards below.
WOMEN
S
M
L
XL
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
inches
26 - 30
28 - 32
31 - 35
34 - 38
38 - 42
cm
76 - 86
81.5 - 91.5
86.5 - 96.5
91.5 - 101.5
96.5 - 106.5
+/- tolerance: 0.5 inches or 1.25 cm
MEN
S
M
L
XL
XXL
inches
30 - 34
32 - 36
35 - 39
39 - 43
43 - 47
cm
81.5 - 91.5
86.5 - 96.5
91.5 - 101.5
96.5 - 106.5
109 - 119
+/- tolerance: 0.5 inches or 1.25 cm
Sash tie length
Lay sash/tie out flat away from the garment and measure from end to end.
Belt with buckle
Measure from the end of the pin of the buckle (where it touches the buckle) to the middle hole.
Belt without buckle
Measure from the belt portion end to end and half of the tie portion. This is will give you the medium size of the belt.
Download our printable ring sizing chart to find the perfect fit!
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UNICEF Market offers triple win pricing, where YOU the consumer, Children from around the world, and Artisans all benefit.
WIN # 1 You Save!
UNICEF Market's artisan-direct prices are made possible through our partnership with NOVICA, a leading fair trade organization that works directly with artisans in remote regions around the world in many of the same communities where UNICEF has missions. NOVICA’s ten global Artisan Empowerment Hubs in Asia, Africa, and Latin America provide interest-free microcredit loans to artisans and help them bring their handmade creations directly to you.
WIN # 2 Children Benefit!
UNICEF Market supports children by helping generate funds for UNICEF's programs dedicated to improving children's lives worldwide. These initiatives provide essential resources such as safe water, nutrition, education, health care, and emergency relief to children in need. Learn more here: UNICEF USA.
WIN # 3 Artisans Thrive!
UNICEF Market empowers artisans in emerging nations by offering a fair trade platform to sell their handcrafted goods, expanding their market reach and increasing their income. This support helps transform the lives of tens of thousands of artisans and their family members across the globe.
