The document is a response to an article by Charles Spite arguing that elephant art is not "real art". The response disagrees, arguing that elephants are natural artists who draw in the wild with sticks and trunks, and their painted artwork is no different than human artwork. Elephant painting programs support themselves financially and art lovers enjoy elephant paintings. The definition of art should be broad and inclusive of endless possibilities, so elephant artwork is a valid form of real art.

1. Bellwork 3-Q3 (5 min)
• Use at least two sentences per answer.
Once I am sure there’s nothing going on
I step inside, letting the door thud shut.
- Philip Larkin, “Church Going”
1. What feelings are evoked by the word thud?
2. How would the meaning change if the speaker let the door slam
shut?

2. Paraphrasing & Summarizing
Notes

3. “What Is Real Art? In A
Word: Everything” by
Ginny Getrardt
My colleague, Charles Spite, recently wrote
that elephant art is not “real art.” I could not disagree
more. As an art critic, I cannot see how elephant art is
any less “real” than human art.
According to Mr. Spite, elephants require
humans’ help to paint. While that is technically true,
elephants are natural artists in the wild. They pick up
sticks with their trunks and draw in the dirt and sand. I
believe that elephants are born with the drive to make
art, just like we are. Painting is just a new way they
have learned to express that drive.
Organizations like the National Elephant
Institute in Thailand have supported themselves with
the money raised by their artistic elephants. Art lovers
around the world have made unique additions to their
collections. If you placed an elephants painting side by
side with a human’s artwork, I doubt you could tell the
difference. That sounds like real art to me.
Of course, some people see even modern art –
the human kind – as just splashes of color on canvas.
But their definition of art is too narrow. Part of what
makes art exciting is its endless possibility. I, for one,
have been glad to see elephants and other animals pick
up their paintbrushes. Who knows? Maybe they will
teach us a thing or two.

6. Homework
Read p.R9 at the back of your text book. Then, copy the quotation,
summary, and paraphrase examples into your Paraphrasing and
Summarizing Notes.