Gary says “I visited the Daphne Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage
on my first trip to Kenya in 1990 and was so impressed with the great success
rate of re-habilitating their elephants back into the wild.
“Soon
after, I met Lissa Ruben back in London. She had been helping at the orphanage
for a long time and was currently writing a book about two particular baby
elephants, Ndume and Malaika. She was very taken with my drawings and asked me
if I’d draw her two special elephants for inclusion in the book.
“She
had so many great photos of Ndume and Malaika when they were very young. So between
us, Lissa and I decided I should work from her references as they were so
appealing. I had met and photographed the same two eles when they were quite a
bit older.
“She
loved my drawing so much, she featured it twice within the book, titled Cry
from the Wild, A Tale of Two Orphans. Part of Lissa’s royalties from the book
went back to help the orphanage. Both Lissa and Daphne Sheldrick have a print
of The Orphans hanging in their homes.
“I
re-visited Daphne’s orphanage in 2002 to make the Wild at Art DVD which focused
on her elephants. I drew Joy as a result of that memorable time, released in
2003.”
