CHICAGO — Trista Li believes elephants can teach humans many things.
Love, compassion, empathy and joy are all feelings the world's largest land animals share with each other. Li, a first-year master of public policy student at the University of Chicago, tries to show these emotions through her elephant watercolor paintings.
After the terrorist attacks in France, Li quickly went to work with art — creating a pair of elephants locking their trunks, their black eyes surrounded by bodies of every color of the rainbow.
"I decided to express my emotion through the painting, which is specifically to express that me, and other people who are in other part of the world, will be there for them no matter where they are," Li said. "I believe that as human, we would allow each other to lean on us, when they are experiencing pain, and would hold them and guide them to a better future. That is why I chose to paint two elephants whose trunks are intertwined leaning against each other."
Li, who comes to Chicago by way of her native China and a bachelor's degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, fell in love with elephants during a lengthy summer trip to Patara Elephant Farm in Thailand. At the farm, elephants are rescued and eventually — and hopefully — reintroduced into the wild.
Li became close with an eight-year-old female elephant named Baan. Li and Baan would take walks into the forest — Baan deliberately taking the pair through tricky paths so the elephant could squeeze between tree trunks to scratch her back. When Li fed her, Baan would make sure Li saved the tastiest treat — sugar cane — for her last bites.
"Elephants have such rich emotions and personality, which drew me into their world — which is family-oriented, warm and simple," Li said.
Li has tried to showcase that with her watercolor paintings, which were originally done as a hobby but became popular enough that she began selling them in November. Her goal now is to get the paintings onto a line of prints and cards, partnering with an elephant sanctuary like Patara.
For more information on Li's paintings, click here. Check out some of her paintings below.
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