We Are Neither Pets Nor Food

We Are Neither Pets Nor Food is a watercolor painting by Liat Polotsky. The art measures 6 1/2" x  9 1/4" and the frame is 12 1/2" x 16", frame included.

Artist Note: "The idea to draw these pictures came to my mind after I received on WhatsApp several videos, supposedly amusing, that showed fist-sized monkeys wearing diapers and baby clothes, reaching out to eat from a bottle . Of course if these were human babies they would be adorable, but I felt quite the opposite - this strange trend of attempting to humanize monkeys not only did not amuse me, but filled me with anger . Who allowed us to take monkeys and raise them that way? Instead of jumping on the trees in the forest, they are forced to jump on tables, come on? All I could see in their eyes was sorrow, and I was ashamed that this is what we do to wild animals, ripping them out of their natural habitat . Another story that came to my attention via social media, although with an unclear date, was that despite the guidelines of the International Whaling Commission, tourists who came to Iceland to watch the endangered blue whale were shocked to see a huge recently hunted whale on a fishing boat, bleeding to death. And not to mention the frequent and brutal killing of thousands of dolphins in other parts of the world for their flesh, despite this mammal's outstanding intelligence and friendliness towards us . Add to that, people who think they are overly original in raising tiger cubs, lion cubs, snakes, and other wild animals who cannot really be domesticated and whose place is not a human home. To me it is no surprise at all that these animals often become dangerous, to the extent that they even attack their owners . All these stories led me to spontaneously create these five images, that express my world - view - which fortunately is shared by many - that we should let wildlife live in nature the way they used to live for thousands of years, and avoid trying to make them look and act like us - and especially since being like us – which, to be honest, is not such a great honor. We have not too many reasons to be proud of our human qualities, given these stories."