Elephant Parade London: Gerald's Groupies

Okay, so I've neglected to update my blog in quite a while. But this doesn't mean that I haven't been working! Anyway, I'm now going to remedy this with a series of blog updates...

First off, an Elephant Parade update. One of the unexpected results of the recent Elephant Parade in London, was meeting with other fellow Elephant Spotters, either pounding the pavements in search of those elusive elephants, or online sharing information and tips to track down those last few Elephas Maximus.

A bunch of us formed a Facebook group to keep in touch, and met up to go and see the elephants one last time when they were on display in the grounds of the Chelsea Royal Hospital. We decided to call the group Gerald's Groupies, as for many of us Gerald was the final elephant out of the 258 that we were searching for. I was asked by Petra who started the group, and was instrumental in tracking down Gerald, if I could do an illustration to use for the Group photo, with Gerald still being hounded by those persistent Elephant Spotters...



I'm also planning to continue drawing more of the elephants from the Elephant Parade London, so watch this space...

Elephant Parade London: #46 Bobby, #135 Gerald

There always has to be one. As part of the Elephant Parade which recently took place in London, six of the 258 fibre glass elephants were placed in Selfridges department store on Oxford Street. One of these six elephants was #135 Gerald, a bright blue elephant with a leaf pattern. The artist, Jonathan Yeo, said he was inspired by "an elephant walking through a park on a sunny Autumn day". So far, so uncontroversial. But after a few days on display, Gerald was removed from public viewing after apparent complaints that his "leaves" were in fact of a more adult nature.



After a prolonged absence from public view, and after a Facebook group was set up to "Free Gerald", he eventually was allowed to be seen by the public at the Elephant Family HQ, before finally being relocated to Chinawhite nightclub.

Having seen Gerald when he was at the Elephant Family HQ, I have to say that all the "controversy" seems to have been a lot of fuss about nothing. Even being aware of what was on Gerald's "leaves" I wouldn't say it was immediately obvious, and certainly wasn't the first thing you notice when looking at him. Still, at least Gerald didn't end up hidden from the public eye forever.

Please take a minute to sign the petition to help save the Asian elephant over at the Elephant Family website.