HotmailNevada horse is international art star
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“We could not understand until we browsed the Web and found out he was ... a horse!” she said in an e-mail. “The more we were learning about Cholla, the more we were thrilled and excited about offering a solo exhibit.”
Renee Chambers, Cholla's owner and assistant, says his international acclaim proves his artistic talents.
“Yes, it's a novelty that a horse can paint,” she said. “But it's not about novelty anymore. It's about his validation as an artist.”
Began by accident
Cholla's painting career began by accident, Chambers said. He'd follow her around when she'd paint the corral each year, and one day her husband quipped, “You should get that horse to paint the fence.”
Chambers instead tacked a piece of paper to a railing, bought some watercolors, mixed them up, and handed a brush to Cholla, who gripped it in his teeth and stroked the paper.
“He's been painting ever since,” she said.
If art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, then Cholla — named after a species of cacti found in the desert southwest — certainly has a following and a growing reputation.
John Yimin, an art lover and critic, wrote on his Web site, “The brush stroke Cholla uses to get his vision down on paper ... the watercolor's dance ... and especially the fascinating completion of the works ... Cholla clearly grabs me and holds me as I watch him paint with the fire of Pollock and fixed gaze of Resnick.”
Yimin said he started his site “to connect to artists and build them a popular place to show their work.”
“As for Cholla, when I first got the submission, I had to bend the rules a little because I don't accept submissions from agents, dealers or anyone other than the artist. Because I remember 'Mister Ed,' I took a look and figured I'd see some dopey horse tied to a tree with a paintbrush taped to its forelock,” he said, referencing the 1960s TV comedy about a talking horse.
“Instead, even in a small frame video, I saw intelligence, purpose and a differing vision exposed to me for the first time. I was and remain awed,” Yimin said.
The 23-year-old bay has only been painting for four years, but original pieces have sold for $900 and as high as $2,200, said Chambers, who busies herself as Cholla's agent.
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Is work created by an animal truly art?
“We live in a world with constantly shifting boundaries and obviously expanding definitions,” said Kurt Kohl, curator at The Art Cafe.
“The horse is creating art on the level of a very young child,” he said. “There may not be a lot of thought behind the process, but one could also ask the same question about Pollock or De Kooning or Rothko.”
“The action of the art is in the viewers response to it,” Kohl said. “And that's why we decided to hang it on our walls.”
Siviero agreed.
“Cholla's work is to be considered as an action, a product that gives life to emotions, controlled neither by the horse nor by the observer,” she said.
Comparing Cholla to Jackson Pollock, an abstract painter, she said, “Pollock preferred to work on a wall or on a floor than at easel, since he liked hard surfaces better.
“In a way, Cholla is more impressionist, at least in his habit, since he finds his inspiration in the open air, next to his portable easel.”
In 2005, Cholla was featured on “The Martha Stewart Show.” The lifestyles diva proclaimed, “Cholla painted a beautiful horse drinking from a champagne glass, a flute, making a toast.”
Chambers, a tiny woman trained in ballet, shrugs off naysayers who may think Cholla is a gimmick.
“It's an innate ability he has,” she said. “He wants to paint. It's in him.”
Chambers prefers to believe Cholla's talents are evidence of the wonders of evolution.
“I totally believe in the evolution's creative energy,” she said. “If we can have it, why not an animal? Art is an expression of intelligence and Cholla's highly intelligent.
“It's not a stupid pet trick.”
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