I found this book in a thrift store a while back. There’s a chapter in it called “Art and the Animal” that describes a series of experiments in which scientists gave a bunch of chimpanzees some art supplies then watched to see what happened. Once the chimps were introduced to the idea of  “colors + surface = something curious” – scribbling with crayons and smudging paint on canvas quickly became an activity they would spontaneously engage in when given the chance. If  someone tried to take their supplies away, the chimps screeched and got upset. There were even cases of mild-mannered animals biting the hands of researchers who tried to mess with their work. In other words – they were into it.

Then in one of the studies, the pesky naturalists decided to associate the spontaneous scribbling with a reward. Very quickly, the selected chimps figured out that any kind of scribble at all would earn a tasty treat. They seemed to lose interest in the character of their work – scribbling aimlessly, looking up now and then to see when the researcher would show up with their banana. Meanwhile, their counterparts who were scribbling and smudging just for the pleasure of accomplishment, were drawing spirals, repeating patterns, playing with symmetry and engaging in other publication-worthy activities. One chimp named Congo went on to create over 400 paintings, three of which went for $26,000 at a 2005 auction.

If you’re an artist, you might ask yourself  “Am I working just for the banana?” If the answer is no, then you might also ask yourself, “How do I get a cage in one of those chimp labs where I get to paint all day?”