THIS is how many elephants it takes to make a pile!

Today I crept into the gallery at the Tacoma Art Museum where a new exhibition is being installed by the talented TAM staff: it is called The Secret Language of Animals and will open this Saturday - January 23rd, 2010. I couldn't wait till it was all completed.
THERE!, said James, is your pile of elephants - what do you think? Not 'my' pile of elephants - but 'our' pile of elephants, I corrected, and they look spectacular!, I said delightedly.
What a thrill to see something you have participated in creating sitting there in a large gallery space. A lot of "installation" art goes right over my head; it leaves me feeling a bit stupid that I don't "get it". I may enjoy looking at it but not really have a clue what the artist is or was trying to say. And here again I don't really know what Jeffry Mitchell is or was trying to say with this pile of elephants installation, but here for some reason it doesn't matter. This grouping makes me smile and the irony of a "pile of elephants" fitting in a museum gallery is pretty intriguing and amusing to me. The remainder of the show looks pretty wonderful too, I can't wait to see it all completed.