by Nina Drozd

Created on: April 28, 2009   Last Updated: April 29, 2009

Anthropomorphism is known as applying human characteristics to non-human creatures and beings, and objects or abstract concepts. I'm sure we have all seen the picture of half human, half dog creature on google images or on Internet somewhere, but I myself just recently discovered the name of such type of visual art and was surprised to find out about the judgement of people about it. So what is it about these art creations that I see as a type of art rather than some fetish?...

It is no doubt that some people will be narrow-minded enough to presume that creation of such a visual art piece is a result of a psychological damage to the brain or a perversity of a human mind, however... let's look at the bigger picture here! When done right (and by right I mean done with a certain idea behind an art piece, not just something to do in spare time), these drawings or photos or paintings can say so much about what the artist thinks and dreams. This direction of art reminds me of expressionism and surrealism united together, portraying an unusual combination of everyday images into something unrealistic, but at the same time charming.... In the same way this type of art combines an image of a human and a dog or leopard to enforce the strength and speed, or a particular belief in unity and equality of humans and animals.

The idea of anthro-drawings is also used in many children's books and cartoons. In here the idea behind it is to bring the animals to life and introduce the children into sometimes not so real but very interesting and entertaining world of cartoons and Disney. Many of us remember watching Tom & Jerry and Lion King as well as numerous other cartoons in our childhood. Would they have been half as fun without the funny animal-human characters of talking and walking on two paws dogs and cats, of an all-dancing and singing lion cub and others? I'm sure if you asked your children now they'd be sure to tell you that all the fun is because of these funny unrealistic characters entertaining their minds.

So, the next time you try to judge an unusual combination of human and non-human in an art piece, consider the bigger picture and see the idea behind a master piece. See if it is done for entertainment or for some thought about the subject or an idea behind a particular combination of objects. Then again, if there is no idea behind it... it might just be something of a joke to the artist itself.

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