With social media dominating everything, I've recently noticed a lot of videos of animals who can seemingly paint, for example I saw a dog who could paint his name. So I'm going to delve in a little deeper and see what this is all about . Sammy the Dog This dog, who goes by the name Sammy, paints abstractedly with many colors. He supposedly loves to paint and has even had work in galleries. One of his artworks even sold for $1700. The reason he can hold his paintbrush this way is because his owner attached it to one of his toy bones. Mishindi the Rhino Lea the Sea Lion Similar to the example above, this Sea Lion sells her artwork to profit the zoo. However, rather than use a paintbrush, she creates flipper art and it's some of the cutest things I've ever seen. (Definitely my favorite so far). There are many many more animals who can paint, ranging from turtles and raccoons to orangutans and chimpanzees. There are some interesting questions surrounding this subject though. Firstly, is it art? I would say yes, I think it is definitely separate from other visual art that we humans are used to but I think that animals can be creative as well, the issues of course being that some animals are color blind and others aren't really creating art but just sort of walking around on a piece of paper. That being said, I still think that a lot of these animals had to put some time into training and therefore I think that they deserve recognition. Some people may look at the abstract work of the dog, for example, and thing "Oh I could do that, my child could do that." And well yes, this could be true, but not all dogs could do that and that's precisely what makes these works of art special. I know that if my dog was able to paint I would cherish that painting as an incredibly unique piece of art. Also interestingly, is it cruel or forced? I don't know the answer to this one. From what I've read, it seems like the animals were shown how to paint and then a lot of these well known ones grew to love it and would get really excited when they knew they were about to start painting. In this circumstance, I don't think it's cruel at all.
Then there's the topic of selling their art, the animals can't really get the money, so is that cruel? I also think not, I think in terms of zoo areas, it's a great idea for these fundraising events to raise money for the animals and the zoo as a whole. I also assume that when family pets make art and it sells that they get some sort of treat too. Overall, I think this is a super unique and cute idea and should definitely continue, as I think it will totally gain popularity in the future.
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May 2017
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