It all began in a quiet studio, with two pink elephants on a blank canvas. What started as a playful creation would grow into a collection of art that brings joy and gives back in ways Laura never expected.
Whenever she gets the chance, Laura slips into her art studio and disappears into the whimsical world of pink elephants. She’s painted hundreds of them over the past 20 years, motivated by the undeniable joy they spark in her and so many others.
Laura had already spent 20 years as a wildlife painter when the first pink elephant unexpectedly appeared on her easel, marking a playful turn in her artistic journey.
“Sometimes your brain knows where you’re going before your eyes do,” she told me. She said that trusting the process can be difficult, but our call left me with the feeling that doing so can take you to some pretty special places.
“Are there really pink elephants?,” is the number one question Laura now receives at art fair booths and gallery openings, where people find large paintings of pink elephants nuzzled between their parents or riding seahorses.
“I used to tell them, ‘Yes, in my imagination! But now I get to tell them that they really do exist!”
She often tells them about Khanyisa, the albino baby elephant that came onto her feed in 2020. “It was literally a baby pink elephant!,” Laura exclaimed—just like the ones she’d been painting for so many years. Khanyisa, whose name means sunshine in Zulu, had been rescued from a snare and brought to HERD, South Africa’s first and only dedicated elephant orphanage.
“She was really touch-and-go at the beginning. I would wake up every morning to see if she made it through the night,” Laura recalled.
She kept following HERD’s updates as Khanyisa was slowly nursed back to health. That deepening connection is what led Laura to choose HERD as one of the organizations to receive 100% of the profits from her pink elephant paintings.
Her reason for giving back was as thoughtful as it was simple:
“We’re doing okay financially, so it didn’t feel right for me to make money off of these animals and keep it for myself.”
“The pink elephants make me a happier person, and it means so much to give this money back to them.”
As a lifelong animal lover, Laura knows firsthand how emotionally and physically demanding it is to care for mistreated animals.“I’ve had as many as 16 cats at one time that I’ve found homes for,” she said. “It’s exhausting, and I know how much it takes for people who make it their life’s work. That’s why I’ve always donated to animal groups.”
Laura sees donating the profits from her art as the most meaningful way she can contribute. “Things are do-able with money,” she reflected. “This feels like the best way I can help right now.”
And Laura’s web of reciprocity doesn’t stop with the elephants. One day, a man wandered into her booth and paused in front of a painting titled Como se Bella—a pink elephant lounging in a bathtub in Italy.
“He said, ‘I’ve been so sad with stuff going on, and this is the first time I’ve had a real smile on my face in months,’” Laura recalled.
Moments like that remind her that her paintings carry more than color and shape. They’re infused with something deeper—the love she believes runs through all of her work. “Love is the answer to every question,” she said.
In her most recent painting, created just days before our call, a pink baby elephant splashes in the water. The droplets catch the light and transform into watercolor butterflies mid-air.
That painting—like much of her work—hints at something bigger: you never know what small act of joy or creativity might ripple outward.
A brushstroke becomes a butterfly. A pink elephant becomes a symbol of joy. A painting leads to helping real elephants like Khanyisa.
As our call was winding to a close, I asked Laura what she would say to someone hoping to follow in her footsteps—to use their creative work for good.
“Just keep going. Just keep doing it,” she said. “It’s hard to do creative work. But if you have a goal and want to help, find the way that’s best for you and keep doing it. Don’t stop in the middle—your brain knows what’s happening, even if you can’t see it yet.”
She paused, then smiled. “And allow yourself your mistakes. Step over them. You can always paint over that. Let it dry, and start again.”
At GlobalGiving, we want to help creatives like Laura connect to the people, projects, and causes that brighten the world—and let their own ripple effects begin.
Do you have a pink elephant in your life? Find a project today.
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