THE PANOM PROJECT
In August, 1998, I took a painting break, dragged an old comfortable chair outside my studio overlooking the San Juan Islands and enjoyed the late afternoon sun. I had a decent glass of wine in one hand and a Smithsonian cradled between the other and my lap; I was engaged in a very interesting article about the plight of the Asian elephant. As I read, I was pulled deeper into their tragic story, at the end of which I found myself in tears.
It seemed an epiphanic event. One moment I was quaffing wine and the next I had made the decision to sell my studio, buy a video camera and head for the elephants and Thailand. Later it seemed all rather mad, but then of course there was no other path. And it all happened within six weeks. The idea was (and is) to use the film to help raise funds and awareness for the elephants. (see At Home With the Elephants essay)
On my first journey filming in northern Thailand in the late winter of 1998, I met a lovely elephant by the name of Panom. She was forty years old, quite tall with a gentle nature. I discovered her name, Panom, is the Thai word that expresses the reverential gesture of the wei, the placing of clasped hands to the forehead. I decided this would become the name of the project. If I were inclined to cloak myself in the idea of re-incarnation, I'd surely have lived an elephant's life. But I'm here and it's now and there is work to be done.
A year ago I bought a building in Chiang Mai, a townhouse of sorts and it soon became Baan (house) Panom, a habitat wherein dances the creative spirit. It is here I live and make art and keep new that attachment between the elephants and myself. It also houses the studio of my young protégé Chang Lek, (Little elephant).
Recently my friend and associate, Loren Knutson, purchased the townhouse adjoining, and we have combined the two to create a larger space.
Baan Panom is not meant to be a commercial gallery. It is a place in which we hope to showcase young artists, either visual or performance. It is a place where we can offer the cross-pollination of cultures and a habitat that nurtures the gift exchange between artists and the community.
The Panom Project encompasses all these elements, to encourage potential and to nourish what is possible. While showing a group of paintings might in-of-itself seem far removed from the devastation of the elephants, we must remember that the most important benefit of art is that it broadens the mindscape of our lives. If we think of art not so much as an object but as ever-expanding awareness of who we are and where we are, then the ‘whys' are inseparable from all that is not human, that which remains utterly essential to us. The elephant is always close. Its great beating heart seems implacable but it is the same heart as the human heart and can perish from this earth if we do not take great care.
Galen Garwood
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Coming soon The Panom Store
Galen Garwood's film 'PANOM, A Story of Elephants and Humans' along with the illustrated/narrated children's stories, 'The First Elephants' and 'Panom and the Stone of Light' will be made available on this site in the near future. The profits of these projects will go toward elephant conservation. For more information, please write us.
