AUSTIN (KXAN) — After this month’s ice storm damaged millions of trees in Austin, one resident is turning her destroyed tree into a work of art. For 32 years, Austin resident Deborah Alexander ...

The texture is not smooth and polished as you would see in most wooden statues of elephants ... He keeps peering closely at the elephant carved from an Indian rain tree. It took him six months ...

His notable acquisitions included three outstanding examples of the region's intricately carved elephant tusks—artifacts newly added to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art.