Drawing Tuesday - white elephants

 A "white elephant" is " a possession that is useless or troublesome, especially one that is expensive to maintain or difficult to dispose of " -- and don't we all have one or other of those in our houses! Unwanted gifts from the inlaws; that expensive garment you've only worn once; the ugly piece of furniture that's been a family heirloom for generations....

"White elephant parties at the office are a relatively new tradition" says this video, which analyses a short story by Hemingway and goes on to consider "the elephant in the room" - both based on the size of the animal. These parties, should you be considering organising one, have rules... but elephants of all sorts and colours are welcome at Drawing Tuesday.

From Jo - a late arrival for the "hats" topic, equally applicable as "white elephants"! 

From Judith - A literal response. Drawing with a rubber. Adrian Villar Rojas and Miquel Barcelo white elephants.

From Hazel - a gouache painting of a white papier-mache elephant I painted for my grandaughter's birthday. The elephant now lives in her bedroom!

From Joyce - Here’s my tongue-in-cheek take on this weeks topic, “white elephants“! 

From Ann -  a collage of my Panasonic bread mixer which I had to have! My husband bought it for me some time ago as I was  keen to bake but after baking one loaf it has remained in the cupboard taking up valuable space! There are so many bakeries nearby! 

From Janet B - I managed to get rid of all my white elephants during the first lockdown so I, too, have taken a literal approach. It is also a “Blue Peter” approach as these are some I did earlier at the Natural History Museum. 

 

From Gillian - Drew over my page of bubble drawing for a free texture.

From Richard - It was probably 35 years ago that a friend of a friend gave us a Pither stove as he was emigrating. (The design, which evolved over the C20, is interesting in itself. They use anthracite which fills the upper part of the cylinder - its all cast-iron inside the stainless steel sleeve) and drops into the burning chamber where a cheering glow can be seen through the woven wire panel. My conscience was OK as I knew anthracite is the most efficient coal, with very little waste/ash. Then I thought I shoud look harder, and the corollary of the efficiency is the highest CO2 production of any coal, and for comparison, twice that of natural gas. Guilt! 

I had paid a lot for the replacement of one of the castings a couple of years back, so that fits the expense eligibility criterion. It is large, shiny, very much in the room, but cold and unlit this winter, so useless. 

From me - The packing materials for the family's house move included quantities of tissue paper, which I used to do my drawing in 3D. Method: crumple the shape, then wind round with strips of torn paper, held together with glue stick.

Rather like a medieval representation of an elephant?

At the time it was solely about making an object to fit the description, but looking back on the process I see it as a slice-in-time self portrait, starting with the decision to save and smooth and fold the sheets of tissue, then to crumple and shape some of it - the rescuer, always asking "what can we do with this". I discovered how easily it tore and how, with a little care, the width of the strips could be controlled, and had to decide whether this was important or not. Despite being torn, the paper was still strong enough to cope with some rough treatment from a dried-up gluestick. The "creature" was rough at the edges and its legs kept giving away; less of a representation of an elephant than the manifestation of an individual shaped by circumstance.