APE ART?

Most of my readers are far too young to remember the original Tarzan TV show and movies. – The shows ran way before I was born and featured a chimpanzee named Cheeta.

Today at 71, Cheeta is the oldest chimp in the world. He’s retired in sunny California and enjoys an occasional soda (and beer). Hmmm. Beyond his unusual beverage diet and Hollywood claim to fame, Cheeta has found a second career: painting.

His caretaker calls the paintings Ape-Stracts. You can view a few of his works of art at: http://cheetathechimp.org/donate.htm#painting.
Other examples can be seen below. They look like someone spitting strokes of color on a page. I don’t know that much about art but I think they are okay.

You can buy one of Cheeta’s canvas marvels to provide funds to the Primate Foundation that takes care of his expenses. The foundation even allows you to select the color scheme of the piece you purchase.

I asked my foster mom Jet if I made creative paw prints on paper would anyone buy them as ‘art’. She didn’t answer except to make a snickering sound. I’m trying to figure out what that means in human language.

This entire experience reminds me of a scrawny looking, scrappy dog adopted by one of Jet’s friends. Let me tell you, he is the scraggliest looking canine I have ever seen. They named him Sugar because he’s a sweet little guy but seriously he looks so ugly. Why would anyone want such a crappy looking dog? Jet says that just as Cheeta’s art is special and attractive to some humans, dogs like sugar are too.

So, here’s my lesson of the day… Buying lame looking chimp art, like adopting scrappy looking dogs, is easy for humans who have the ability to see the value of investing in the beauty of what’s inside the heart of the artist and the canine.

The question of the day is from Vixie who asked: Why does my dad yell at the television every time this lady called Pelosi is on the screen?


Dear Vixie:
First, I think part of the problem may be that Pelosi isn’t human. My mom calls her something I haven’t found in the dictionary yet. My guess is that your human dad’s explosive reaction to Pelosi has something to do with a human condition called politics. Jet says it’s actually become an inhumane condition that would explain why your dad gets upset about it.


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