Do Cats Paint: Feline Aesthetics or Wishful Thinking?

As I sat in the Vet's office, waiting for my cat to get his vaccinations, I found myself thumbing through a book they had on display, with a photo of a cat splashing paint across a canvas. The book entitled "Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics" immediately intrigued me. I briefly skimmed pages that contained photos of cats leaving paw stokes on paper. Not having sufficient time to actually read the whole book, I really didn't have any doubt about its validity. Cats painting? Why not? They're intelligent creatures, and they do like scratching and leaving their marks, so if you add some paint to the mix I could see them being trained to put some colors on canvas.

But while I was feeling the urge to go buy some paints for my own cat, I decided to look further into the matter. To my disappointment, the only sites I could find on the internet about painting cats was the book I had already come across, and a website called MONPA (Museum of Non-Primate Art). That being my only resource, I decided to take a look. At first glance, I had no real reason to suspect MONPA, and was kind of excited by the idea; A museum that "preserves the movement, marks, and sounds of non-primate species, and consider them, without prejudice, as modes of aesthetic communication, in the hope of gaining new insights into our world". Again, why not? If living in New York City for four years taught me anything, it was that nothing is off limits, especially when it comes to art.

The museum is said to contain works by cat artists, as well as horses, birds, and dogs. The website contains a museum shop, scholarships and research programs, as well as links to its exhibits: cat painting, cats dancing with people, and bird art. It also offers a FAQ section on cats painting, with answers to the percentage of cats that paint (an extremely low 0.001%), what breeds are more likely to paint, and how to encourage your cat to paint.

Now if you didn't recognize this at first glance, which I didn't (dummy), this is all an elaborate hoax. There is no MONPA and there are no recorded works of cats painting, at least not in the way that they describe. For those of you still clinging on to some hope of it being real, here are some major hints. The first hint in that MONPA is completely affiliated with the book "Why Cat Paint", and is the only resource about the subject on the web. One would think that owners of painting cats, or people who have actually gone to these types of museums would want to advertise it, and that more people would be commenting on this phenomenon. But, besides that, all it takes is a little reading of the fine print to set off the BS flags. The book and website mention the early history of cat painting, starting in Egypt in sacred scrolls supposedly being preserved in museums or libraries. However, the names of museums and people mentioned are completely fabricated. Also, MONPA claims to have several branches, but they are not open to the public, and there are no addresses supporting that these branches even exist.

Actually, many things on the website, when closely looked at, are actually really funny. They offer scholarships to veterinary students "who have demonstrated an interest in and commitment to feline dance injuries", and "deserving chemistry students who show an interest in the formulation of non-toxic paint for cats". And the bird art is simply samples of bird crap. The upcoming exhibitions are also funny, and include "The Shaping and Placement of Canine Defecatory Structures". There's also a link to a documentary that they claim is still in the works, and they give you video clips of a cat painting. I admit, when I first saw it, I thought it was real (again, dummy), but upon a second viewing you can notice the paw is a little fake looking, and the camera angle a little sketchy. It's still worth watching, because it's pretty cute. Another hint, as if that wasn't enough, is everything the museum sells is created by the writers of "Why Cats Paint", Burton Silver and Heather Busch.

On looking back, the hoax seems obvious. The people of the book and the website claim that the cat artists are actually painting, meaning they were not trained, and they are actually trying to create art. They say that when some cats are looking at something "they are using peripheral vision to study the harmonic nature of color and form". It's all really a bit silly.

But, besides the reader's interpretation, the only written proof of the book being a hoax is that at the very front of it, it reads," 'Why Cats Paint' is a registered international experiment in interspecies morphic resonance and is designed to test the hypothesis of formative causation." In other words, "if you describe a phenomenon, perhaps its will come to exist." All of this is meant to trick us, and it's meant to look just real enough to be believed.

And it's working. Many people who have looked at this book and website did not realize it was a hoax. Even when a second book came out, "Why Paint Cats", reviewing the ethics of using cats as a canvas, it caused an uproar of people thinking this was a cruel action against cats (in reality it was all photoshopped). If you want to investigate for yourself, visit the MONPA website. While it is fake, it still is pretty entertaining and I suggest looking at it. And, who knows, maybe some person out there will be inspired enough to train their cat to paint. I still believe it could be possible. Speaking of which... where's my cat?

Bibliography

Busch, Heather and Silver, Burton. "Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics".

"The Cats Guide to Art: Why Cats Paint". The Freddie Street Cats.

Kobayashi, Juli. "Why Cats Don't Paint". The Paws Path Cat Blog.

Mikkelson, Barbara and David. "Painted Cats". Snopes.com.