22 December 2008

Hierophant


A hierarchy of elephants inspired by Cildo Meireles' table.
Pen and ink with watercolour. 19cm x 15cm each. Click to enlarge.

34 comments:

ElizT said...

Wonderful.

Tomás Serrano said...

These are superb! Ellis, what kind of pen and ink do you use? Merry Christmas.

Margaret Nelson said...

Trumpety-trump, trump, trump, trump!

Merry Xmas and a highly creative New Year Nad!

Steve said...

Lots of trunks recently, Nad.

THink I'll let the Welsh-rappers break the news to you:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wAZTLVJSlNw

Kevin Musgrove said...

Splendid stuff yet again.

Merry thingy Ellis!

Sergio said...

great the first one!
happy f... christmas!

Anonymous said...

Happy Christmas, Ellis. Very glad to have found your site this year through the inestimable Torta.

May your wassail be warm and yer roasties ne'er chilly.

Anonymous said...

One of your best. I prefer the first one...but that's me and colour.

Great lines, great presence...You have such a knack for the evocative.

Mim said...

when you say "all work for sale" - where????

Anonymous said...

Is this one of my dreams ?

❤Yisin said...

nice one :D

dion said...

very dr seuss

murphy girl said...

ok. i totally love these.

Darcy Melton said...

These are so fantastic! I want one of my very own!

Cathy said...

Ooh! Genius!

eyecontact said...

Excellent!

soulbrush said...

hierlarious!

Gavin Goo said...

whimsical :)

sophie philo said...

great, i love your style and the way you tell stories!

Eric Barclay said...

Really cool!

Amy C said...

super fantastic and I love the colors

claudine hellmuth said...

love love love your work!

Karin said...

Amazing work. Really love your style.

rmsmi said...

Awesome. I love this stuff.

Debra Keirce said...

This is really cute!! Great job!!

neilornstein said...

The most widely known version appears in Stephen Hawking's 1988 book A Brief History of Time, which starts:
“ A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"

Xovika said...

Each one of those little elephants are carrying 1/4 of medium ones+ 1/16 of the giant one ... Poor creatures! Your works in color are fantastic.

Unknown said...

Wow! Ellis Nadler!!
Could it be the same amazing Ellis Nadler ?!...I was a huge fan when I was studying in the UK! I used to cut out all your cartoons and illustrations from Time Out and other mags and pasted my favorites in a scrapbook! I am so pleased I found you and your great work again!

AdamFF said...

The intersting thing about this is that the tiny as spectacular as the largest elephants are, the ones on the bottom of the pile are the strongest, as they are the supporting all the others above them.

Nice work, great stuff.

Adam Foster-Fahy
www.AdamFF.com

Anonymous said...

It is so great-your watercolor and pen & ink is super!
I also like the idea! I am looking forward to seeing more awesome work!

lil kim said...

wow that's so cool!

linda said...

Very cool illo...love the repetition!

michael robertson said...

beautiful work! your color and line work are superb!

Denise Gallagher said...

Wow! Stunning!