An Elephant Paints: Is it Art?

We've seen the end result: an elephant wielding a brush creates a painting. Let's examine what might have preceded that event. Someone realized elephants could be trained to use their trunks in fine movements by watching them reach for and eat peanuts. Why not teach them to use tools such as paintbrushes? Further, why not provide a large sheet of sturdy watercolor paper, furnish several containers of different paint colors, and train the animal to slosh paint at random on the paper and Voila! Art!

The elephant trainer was apprised of the task and chose the one elephant felt to be capable of the successful production of the proposed paintings. The paintbrushes and several bright colors of paint were chosen by the trainer. A decision about how to position the paper, flat on the ground or propped on an easel, had to be made. Using the paintbrush in a certain manner and alternating brushes and colors had to be taught or done by the trainer. Where in this does creativity, essential to any artwork, originate? Not with the elephant, which is simply following orders. Is the artist the person who thought an elephant could be a painter, or is the artist the trainer who used the elephant as a means of creating paintings? Perhaps there is no artist. What do you think?

I leave you with this, overheard in an art gallery,

My four year old can do better art than this stuff.

Perhaps, if the competition is an elephant.