Elephants at Marquez Elementary

Artist ‘Roaming Elephant’ Creates Awareness Through Painted Mural

By JENNIKA INGRAM | Reporter 

When Palisadian Angie Everhart’s fourth-grade son came to her with how impressed he was by some magnificent elephant paintings, she was listening.

“I want to raise awareness to protect and stop the poaching of these majestic animals, they must be saved,” he told her.

A chance meeting at a charity benefit months later between Everhart and artist Roaming Elephant was all she needed to run with it. She came up with the idea to replace the grey walls of the handball courts at Marquez Charter Elementary School with art. 

On September 23, Roaming Elephant (aka artist Matt Shapira) came to the Palisades to paint two murals on the schoolyard and teach children how art can make a difference.

“If we lose the elephants, 100 species are going to die with it or more,” Everhart warned. “It’s just not acceptable. We cannot lose elephants.”

Everhart, who encourages people to donate to the elephants and the artist’s causes, added that there are 300,000 elephants left. 

“I try to guide the information, you shouldn’t ride elephants because they are not meant to be ridden, and there’s some bad things that happen to get them to do that,” Shapira explained the Post. “Any wildlife should be as protected as possible.”

Kicking off a year of effort, Everhart began her mission to bring this whole vision together. She reached out to the principal, sifting through red tape, recruiting the artist and helpful parents, creating T-shirts for the teachers, and donating paint supplies.

Everhart told the Post, she remembers seeing the handball courts and thinking instead of grey, “they should be colorful, they should be lively.”

Everhart and fellow parent Lindy Refnes, along with their three children, spent two full days priming and painting the handball courts with school-approved paint to prepare them for the artist.

Finally, on the first day of fall, Shapira and The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation came to the campus. An LA native, Shapira travels all over the world to share and express his passion for elephants, and spread awareness of their plight.

“The mission is that art is a great device because it’s disarming … it transcends, and it’s an opportunity to really shake the mind,” Shapira explained.

For Shapira, one of the things he asks of the students is to make an elephant painting for him. Since he is providing a gift for the students, he requests they give him one back, which is a tool he uses to help the children stay engaged with the experience. 

Two fourth-grade students came up to Shapira during the interview with the Post to tell him their class is thinking of naming one of the elephants Big Berta.

“I think that’s great,” he replied.

Shapira credited his mother, a former school teacher, for learning to paint. She attended the event.

Trading cards featuring the artwork of Shapira were distributed as a reminder that making ethical decisions can help elephants.

Roaming Elephant can be followed on Instagram @roamingelephant. For more information, visit davidsheperd.org.