Why Paint Cats
| Why Paint Cats | |
|---|---|
| Front cover of Why Paint Cats | |
| Author(s) | Burton Silver |
| Illustrator | Heather Busch |
| Country | New Zealand |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Comedy |
| Publisher | Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
| Publication date | 1994 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 96 pp |
| ISBN | 0297833510 |
| OCLC Number | 31376281 |
Why Paint Cats is a comedy book written by New Zealand author Burton Silver and illustrator Heather Busch. The book describes the practice of "cat painting" in art and history (that is, decorating cats with paint, as distinguished from painting portraits of cats). It is one of three cat art books, including Why Cats Paint and Dancing with Cats.
This satirical book inspired much confusion since its publication, from the perspectives of both those who wished to learn where or how they might have their own cats "painted", and also from those who consider the concept unethical and abusive to the animal. These wishes and complaints were, however, unfounded.
The book is a deliberate parody of books on art and a social comment on the extreme liberties taken with pets by some pet owners in the name of fashion; it was never intended to be regarded as a serious text. The cat images were done with a photo editing program and there is no paint on any of the cats pictured. But whereas New Zealanders had the advantage of knowing Burton Silver's previous tongue-in-cheek work (most notably through his former weekly comic strip Bogor), many overseas readers were largely unaware of the spoof and took the book at face value[citation needed].
The iPhone app "CatPaint" was inspired by this book.
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- Fantasy art
- Cats in popular culture
- 1994 books
- New Zealand books
- Comedy books
- Parodies
- Hoaxes in New Zealand
- 1994 hoaxes