Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/433799
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 1 0 8 some of the greatest genius I've encountered in my thirty years of representing African artists," Parker says. The ambitious project, which will involve unveilings of new artwork at a handful of exhibitions between 2015 and 2017, visits Mana Pools in the first phase, North Luangwa National Park across the Zambezi in Zambia in the second, and, in the third, the river's headwaters in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. As every well-traveled reader of this magazine knows, numerous iconic African species are in trouble—elephants and rhinos being ravaged by organized crime, predators (including all members of the cat family) being eliminated by poachers, and creatures of every hoof and feather being harvested to feed local people. While writing this article, new stories about the plague of ivory and rhino-horn poachers, timber thieves in Zambia, and plans to open up Mana to possible oil and gas drilling appeared in only a week's time. Van Schalkwyk, Langmead, and Gonde want to prick the consciousness of viewers, not with doom and gloom but scenes of overwhelming beauty. Like the great American painter Thomas Moran, whose portrayals of the northern Rockies helped convince members of Congress to set aside Yellowstone as the world's first national park, the remarkable trio hopes their art can have a similar impact. "The main focus with my paintings are landscapes where the animals become part of a bigger scene so that we understand the context for where they live," Van Schalkwyk said while preparing new works that will be formally unveiled in Parker's gallery displays at Dallas Safari Club and SCI in Las Vegas. "Although I have visited some of the great South African parks from a young age, I considered myself a city boy so this is as much a revelation for me as it will be for the viewers who see what we produce." For a human visitor, Mana Pools is what legendary Africa, shared in family stories and passed down, used to be. It's a last holdout in a country wracked by political turmoil. Humans who get out of the safe confines of their safari rig and walk—the preserve's BLAZE OF GLORY by DAVID LANGMEAD