Posted on 09/27/2006 6:21:47 PM PDT by martin_fierro
Maggie the sea lion paints for fish
Wed Sep 27, 6:02 PM ET
PITTSBURGH - Some artists suffer for their work. Maggie, an 11-year-old sea lion at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, gets to eat dead fish for hers. Kesha Phares, a zoo trainer, has been teaching the animal to paint since last year.
"It's, in a way, enriching," Phares told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for Wednesday's editions. "Sea lions are very smart animals, and painting keeps their minds active."
It took three months to get the animal to hold a paint brush and touch the bristles to paper.
Phares picks the paint colors — sea lions are colorblind — and puts paint on the brush. The paintings are done one stroke at a time, with Maggie getting a fish after each stroke.
If the animal can be said to have a style, it is this: She tends to put more paint on the right side of the canvas than the left.
Maggie, an 11-year-old California sea lion, paints a picture with the help of keeper Kesha Phares at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. Phares works with Maggie and other sea lions to paint a couple of pictures a week as a mental activity for the highly intelligent animals.
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How ... pinnipedestrian.
You know, as a person who paid Penn State a butt load of money for them to teach me art, this kind of crap really incenses me. Sure the sea-lion is cute, but some jackass with more money than brains will actually buy the "art" at an auction.
Mais Oui!
I can be a millionaire. "Maggie"
And each print comes with Maggie's personal "seal of approval"...
Go look at some of the crazy stuff in any modern art section of the museum, and Maggie's art does not stand out at all. And she does not use elephant dung either!
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