The other day, on reading one of my saved bookmarks, I was reminded that Pigcasso died at the midlife age of 8 in South Africa.
Yes, a lovely pig, whose paintings had fetched over a million dollars during her lifetime, died at the age of 8, which in equivalent human life-years is 38-39. A young gal, but then again, many human painters have died young too.
So the story is that in 2016, our artist was scheduled to be executed－sorry I meant slaughtered－at the appropriate age of 4 weeks (pig years). But she was rescued by a certain Joanne Lefson, a 52-year old (human years) artist and animal activist.
At a certain time, Lefson noticed that the animal has a certain affection for paintbrush, because when she (the pig) was in a room, she would destroy everything, except for the brush.
As time evolved, Lefson and the animal collaborated on producing artwork that generated a million dollars worth of painting sales. So just as a star was born unexpectedly out of a slaughterhouse, an artist died at a young age and left behind a grieved partner and good memories. I wonder if those paintings have now increased in value because the original artist is gone and there will be no more added to the existing inventory.
I guess pigs have been moving up in the creature ranks since the middle of the last century. They have been political leaders (Animal Farm), folk heroes (Miss Piggy), nutrition providers, organ donors to humans (valves, hearts, kidneys), and now artists. I guess we can now coin the term ‘as useful as a pig’ and not be off too much. I wonder if our earth would be better off had it been run by pigs since the 1950s.
So long Pigcasso, the million dollar pig:(
Paris, May 16, 2024,
Zeejay