The Gentle Listener (unframed)

Artist’s Note

I drew this piece after becoming fascinated by the way elephants experience the world.

They aren’t just hearing sound through the air. They’re sensing events long before they arrive. Through nerve endings in their feet and trunks, elephants sense vibrations moving through the ground. They can 'hear' storms forming miles away.

This made me wonder whether abilities like this are dormant in humans… unnoticed, or maybe even forgotten.

While reflecting on this I started practising what I think of as silent listening. A kind of attentiveness that doesn’t try to interpret too quickly. It listens without without needing to filter everything it hears.

There’s a purity in the animal kingdom that's increasingly rare. It’s the absence of pretense - the body responding before the mind starts arranging meaning.