Here's a photograph of a "work of art" that has adorned the lobby of the condominium in which I've lived since 2009. It is unsigned -- the creator hasn't been courageous enough to inscribe his/her name. I think it's a ridiculously ugly smear, and In the privacy of my aggrieved mind, I attribute it to a painter-of-my-imagination whom I call Fango Nero (Italian for "black mud"). I conceive Fango Nero to be an innovator in the sense that he employs not brush or palette knife but rather a standard Home Depot 6" paint roller. I don't find fault with Signore Nero for leaving his painting unnamed and unsigned. It's a wise choice on his part. After all, the set of smudges is a patently disgraceful, reprehensible piece of trash that has no business masquerading as art or being affixed to anyone's walls, let alone mine. I don't know what prompted the architects or the contractors of this building to purchase this thing and hang it in my lobby. Perhaps it was bequeathed to them, or possibly they were supporting a needy uncle.
So many accomplished artists in this world and I must be afflicted with these splotches! What a waste of space!
That's what used to think, these last twelve years -- until I had a sudden epiphany.
This painting is not the work of my imaginary painter Fango Nero, or any human being. No, not at all. It's got to be the production of a talented elephant.
Some of my readers will have seen videos of elephants painting. If the professor of art or the mahout offers an artistically-inclined elephant paint and brush, by golly, he or she will grasp the brush handle with the ever-useful trunk and create you something in the abstract impressionist line.
Here is a genuine pachydermal production. (I'm not aware of the name of the particular artisit.)
It's quite a bit more interesting than my black and white paint roller job, is it not? I like the cheerful interplay of the two well-chosen colors and the way that the long pink lines, almost imprisoned by the green, suggest both freedom and delight. A superior production! It would be a greater pleasure by far to encounter this canvas several times a day than the muddy black one that ambushes me every time I pass through the lobby.
The bottom line: Fango bad, Dumbo good.
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