"You can't paint an elephant" what does this mean? symbolism?

Answer 1

~It means:
a. You have no artistic ability, or
b. The sucker is too big and won't hold still, or on a more contemporary note,
c. The tree huggers and ASPCA will have your butt in the clink if you try.

Answer 2

I don't know what it means, because I've seen elephants who have been painted for sacred rituals in Southeast Asia. I've also seen paintings OF elephants. Perhaps it has something to do with Marcelle Duchamps painting "This is not a pipe". The painting was a very good rendition of a pipe. However, the point he was making was that it was a painting OF a pipe and not the pipe itself.

Answer 3

Maybe it's comparing the painting of an elephant to the elephant itself. When you have a model, you represent it in your painting, but your painting is not the model. So, you can paint a painting of an elephant, but you can't paint the elephant itself.

Answer 4

It means that no matter how you paint or represent something it is still just an image, never the real thing. Think Pygmalion.

By the way... Banksy painted an elephant in his recent LA show.

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/16/people_pretty_pissed.html

Answer 5

I don't know but it sounds cool. I wanna use that. where did it come from?
hah. I would just say it at the end of sentences.
...and yeah.. well.. you can't paint an elephant.

Answer 6

Whatever you do an elephant remains a elephant.
What ever has a place in the scheme of things retains that place regardless what happens.i.e. Once there were dragons.

Answer 7

You can't control the way republicans look or act.

Answer 8

it is something that belongs in the front of its face