Have you ever seen the pictures of so-called “art” created by zoo animals? Congo the chimpanzee has made over 400 paintings and drawings. Bini the Bunny has a YouTube channel where he paints with a brush in his mouth. A pig from South Africa, called “Pigcasso,” has made paintings that people have paid thousands of dollars for—she signs them by dipping her snout in ink and touching the canvass.
But here’s the thing—every one of these animals’ works is classified as “abstract” art. In other words, you really can’t tell the difference between their “art” and random scribbles or paint smears on a canvass. The only animal to paint a coherent picture is the elephant…and it paints only what it has been trained to paint, making the same picture, over and over and over. It is not creativity, but rote replication…like a copy machine.
True art is a uniquely human activity. We alone have the desire and the ability to create original works of beauty that go beyond either randomness or repetition. And that is because art, ultimately, is a gift to man from God.
Near the end of Exodus, Moses is charged with building the tabernacle, and he identifies his chief craftsman for the project:
“See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, 32 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, 33 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft.”
When you create art, remember that you are able to do so only because you, yourself, are God’s artistic handiwork, and the creative gift has been given only to those made by Him in His image. After all, Moses didn’t ask a chimpanzee or a bunny to design the tabernacle.
Have a wonderful day.
