Miles Van Rensselaer using everything from glass and crystal to bronze and iron, from gold and silver to tooth and bone, from steel, copper and lead to wood, clay, feather and hair. He has been fortunate enough to work – and humbled by working – with and among talented artists from all over the world. His work is his homage to these people and their vanishing ways of life, his translation of their technique, imagery, idea of “primitive” art into modern Western materials.

An elephant “kisses” a visitor during a show at an elephant training school in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan province, April 18, 2015. Some 16 elephants live at the school and give four 30-minute performances everyday for visitors. (Photo by Wong Campion/Reuters)

The group of elephants was tracked though nearby jungle by wildlife officers in Chachoengsao, Thailand on April, 2020. More than 50 wild elephants crossed the highway. (Photo by Pratya Chutipat Sakul/Viral Press)

An elephant calf yawns as mahouts paint elephants ahead of celebrations for the water festival of Songkran in Ayutthaya, Thailand on April 11, 2019. The annual elephant Songkran event is held to promote the tourism industry. Songkran Festival is held also to mark the Thai traditional New Year falling annually on 13 April, and it is celebrated with people splashing water and putting powder on each other faces as a symbolic sign of cleansing and washing away the sins from the past year. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

A mahout rides on an elephant in the city of Amritsar, India, 08 November 2015. Such elephants are often accompanied by their caretakers who ask for alms from people in the streets. (Photo by Raminder Pal Singh/EPA)

Indonesian mahouts (elephant masters) bathe elephants prior to a daily patrol at a Conservation Respons Unite (CRU) to control elephant-human conflicts in Serbajadi, East Aceh on April 7, 2016. Elephants have joined the front line in the fight against poaching and illegal logging in the dense jungles of Sumatra. Guided by their Indonesian mahouts, they trek alongside rivers, over rough terrain and deep into the rainforest in an area that is home to numerous endangered species, from orangutans to tigers, but which has suffered devastating deforestation in recent years. (Photo by AFP Photo/Januar)

A decorated elephant march at the Navam Perahera, a Buddhist pageant of elephants, dancers and drummers, in Colombo February 3, 2015. Over 50 elephants participated in the street parade for Gangaramaya temple's annual Perahera festival, along with a nightly procession of traditional dancers, fire twirlers and traditional musicians. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)

A sinkhole is seen on the shore of the Dead Sea near Kibbutz Ein Gedi, Israel July 27, 2015. The Dead Sea is shrinking, and as its waters vanish at a rate of more than one meter a year, hundreds of sinkholes, some the size of a basketball court, some two storeys deep, are devouring land where the shoreline once stood. (Photo by Amir Cohen/Reuters)