You Can't Make an Elephant Paint: Animals Who Create

Are you passionate about animals and believe that they deserve respect, compassion and understanding? Do you believe that it is important that people understand that animals are sentient, feeling beings? Or, does it pique your curiosity to see how animals enjoy and manipulate art materials? If you answered "yes" to any or all of these questions, please consider purchasing this book! Titled: "You Can't Make an Elephant Paint: Animals Who Create," this book features animals such as Hong the elephant who paints realistic self-portraits, Congo the chimpanzee who created more than 400 drawings and paintings, and Cholla the mustang who loves to paint on an easel set up in his pasture. The stories and illustrations in this book even present dolphins, orangutans, dogs, pigs, and goats who handle brushes in order to create. The book features 14 two-page spreads that describe how the animal creates (left hand page) and a graphite and watercolor image of the animal with a copy of their work inside their body. On the left hand page, I also include questions that elicit aesthetic discussion about the creative process. These questions are designated with a question mark. Examples of questions are: If a person sets up the art project is the person the artist? Or, is the animal the artist or is it a collaboration between the two? Another example of a question is: If the animal's work resembles that of a professional or famous artist, should the work be valued the same? Or, should the work be valued less or perhaps more? These pages will also feature websites and other resources to do further research. This information will be designated by a pawprint symbol. The remainder of the book presents organizations who use art to help animals. Groups such as the Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project (AEACP) and Metro Meteor the Painting Racehorse who funds New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program ( a group who rescues, rehabilitates, and rehomes ex racehorses) are also featured.

Gaye Leigh Green is a former elementary art specialist and teacher who reinvented herself as a Professor of Art. She holds a B.A. in both Art and Psychology from C.S.U.S., a M.A. from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in Art Education from the Pennsylvania State University. She has taught all levels of education from Kindergarten to University and is currently a Professor of Art Education at Western Washington University.