When do you know that a work of art is “heckin’ goob”?
When a canine critic says it is, that’s when.
Following in the pioneering paw prints of Doge, the shiba inu whose fractured syntax was immortalized in about a million memes, dogs have taken to social media to offer dogspeak commentary on any number of topics.
Now, here comes Cebe (pronounced “Seh-bee,” short for “Ceberus”), an 11-year-old lab/pit bull mix with an eye for art. Check out his evaluations in “What Does Cebe Say?” at #CebeDog on Instagram.
Cebe comes by his talent naturally, as his owner is Mona Wiley, public programs manager at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that Wiley cultivated his interest.
The concept evolved from conversations Wiley was having with friends about their creative pursuits in the midst of stay-at-home orders.
“I needed a new creative outlet,” she says. “I was doing Facebook videos of me cooking and bothering Cebe and making him dance and doing art with him. Randomly after that, the concept evolved.”
Wiley chooses a piece of art, takes a photo of Cebe in an appropriate outfit and “helps” him write his commentary. Her friend, Michael Carsone of Irwin, does the photo edits to create the final image.
“I didn’t want to be that pet parent,” she says, but the results were too funny not to share.
From Vincent van Gogh to Roy Lichtenstein to Pittsburgh’s own Joyce Werwie Perry, any artist is fair game for Cebe’s critical eye.
“I look at them from a dog’s perspective,” Wiley says.
She chose van Gogh’s “Landscape at Auvers in the Rain” because Cebe doesn’t like rain. Dressed in a yellow slicker and matching hat, he makes his disdain known.
Cebe’s take on Peter Paul Rubens’ “Daniel in the Lions’ Den” drew the attention of staff at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where the painting resides.
“They reached out and asked if they could share it,” Wiley says. “This has been wonderful and really fun for me.”
It’s also pretty heady stuff for a rescue dog from a Blair County shelter who Wiley says “is a bit neurotic and has separation anxiety.”
Not only has he made a name for himself in the art world, Wiley says, he’s become a celebrity at his doggy day care.
