Why Paint Cats

Why Paint Cats

I don't quite remember when I ordered this from the library. I do remember that I found it when I was looking for Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics.

I was well aware that Why Cats Paint was a "joke" book, a parody on artistic criticism and history.

What I didn't realize until I started looking at Why Paint Cats is that it's a parody, too. It is not, as I had thought, about the pastime of painting pictures of cats, but about the activity of painting cats themselves. You know, instead of canvases. Or, like, barns.

Even then, I'm ashamed to say, I wasn't quite sure it was all a joke. The pictures are pretty convincing -- all Photoshopped, of course, but still... It was the text that finally convinced me. While I'm not positive that there aren't people who paint their cats, I'm quite sure that there aren't enough of them to constitute a school. And this book discusses a lot of schools: Neo-Totemism, Retro-Ritualism, Anamorphic Hybridism, and my favorite, Transmogrificationism.

The book really is a hoot. Get it to give to your Art Major friend, or anyone, really, who's a little too pretentious about their artistic leanings.