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.
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Information from: Tribune-Review,
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