"Paintings With Personality"

I call this painting "The Joker." I painted it while visiting in St Thomas, USVI. There happened to be a carnival going on and I did several paintings based on the characters and costumes I saw. This painting is done on 140 lb Lanaquarelle watercolor paper. The size is 22x30 inches.

The world was shocked in the late 1950’s when a primate who could make art was first introduced. TV’s everywhere showed, Congo, a chimpanzee at the London Zoo, and his art creations. Eventually, art institutions everywhere began to display paintings done by animals.

Today many animals, from cows to primates are credited with creating art. The question is, do the animals see art in their paintings or are they just looking for something to do?

Animals in confinement are offered art as a way of keeping them emotionally healthy, and they might put paint to paper, or eat it, depending on how they felt at the time. The hope is that in painting they can exercise their minds and alleviate the boredom of being in captivity. Humans place the paint strategically to ensure better success. They get the animals ready for the painting process, then move the paper/canvas sideways, diagonally, or upside down so the animal will cover the whole surface.

I want to introduce you to my three favorite animal painters:

Birds: most birds can see four colors, while humans see only three. They see colors we don’t even know exist. Ravens are known for their intelligence and they paint in captivity, but the bower bird is the only animal that has been seen to create art in its natural environment. The males build their beautiful nests by arranging objects based on shape and color hoping to attract females. They carefully place each item and if the items somehow get moved the birds are able to put them back where they had originally been.

Elephants: the different ways elephants move their trunks explain their distinctive painting style. They can only see two colors, red and green and are (by human standards) considered colorblind. The elephant’s keeper chooses the colors, the elephant chooses where to put them.

The elephants who paint simple drawings of an elephant holding flowers, or doing other things is a trick. The elephant trainer loads the paint brush and places it in the elephant’s trunk; then he tugs in various directions on the elephant’s ear, instructing the enormous animal which way to move its trunk to draw the image. It takes intelligence and sensitivity for the elephant to be able to follow these instructions, but they are still instructions. 

Primates: see the same colors we see. Moja, a chimpanzee who uses sign language said she had drawn a bird, and it did, indeed, look somewhat like a bird, and every time she drew a bird she always used the same arrangement she had used in her original bird.

Koko and Michael, are both “signing” gorillas who have also stated they created birds. Their paintings look somewhat like a bird.

It seems that if animals have the capacity of learning and creating art, we should have more respect for them, and how we care for them. To see paintings created by different animals, go to http://www.okczoo.com/conservation/art-gone-wild/ on your computer. You can also see art done by Congo, Moja and Koko, all you have to do is Google them. 

What do you think about animal art? Enquiring people want to know.  Later, Judy

www.judyballance.com