Title: Bonobo: Interrupted Thought                         Medium: Pastel
Artist Website: www.endangeredart.com             Artist Email:
Size: 19 x 25" image size, framed size 31 x 37" framed archivally, double-matted, UV glass
Price: $5750 including $1000 donation to Chimfunshi Wildlife Sanctuary in Zambia
To be featured in the Jan/Feb issue of Wildlife Art Magazine. Shipping info upon request.

We are delighted to share with you the work of wildlife artist and naturalist Charles Alexander. Based in Memphis, TN, Alexander is dedicated to the conservation of endangered wildlife and their vanishing habitats via his art. He is particularly interested in raising awareness and generating funds for projects focusing on lesser-known species like the bonobo, the Sumatran rhino, and the Lear's macaw. His work has appeared in such publications as Birder's World and Wildlife Art, and is published as fine art posters by Bruce Mcgaw of New York.

If you have any questions about this work, or wish to discuss its purchase, please . Note again, $1000 from the sale of this work will go directly to the Chimfunshi Wildlife Sanctuary in Zambia.

Wildlife Art Magazine

This painting will be featured in the Jan/Feb issue of Wildlife Art Magazine with these words: "Rarest of the Great Apes, the bonobo ( Pan paniscus ) is found in only one nation: central Africa’s Democratic Republic of Congo. Isolated from other ape populations by the horseshoe-shaped bend of the mighty Congo River - the second largest river in the world after the Amazon - the bonobo has evolved into a species distinct from the chimpanzee, the only other member of the genus Pan. Also known as the "pygmy chimp" the bonobo is actually the same size as the more common chimpanzee, but is slimmer and has longer legs, giving the bonobo a lower center of gravity which allows it to walk upright with ease.

The bonobo also sports bushy side-whiskers and a characteristic bonobo "hairdo" that parts neatly down the middle. These differences aside, it is the bonobo’s behavior that truly sets it apart from its closest living relatives, including man. Among bonobos, "females rule" is the order of the day, with males achieving status only in direct proportion to their mothers' ranking in society. Living in groups of up to 100 individuals, bonobos do not practice infanticide or warfare - as do chimps and humans - but instead prefer to " make love, not war" by diffusing social tensions and potential conflict through the creative and frequent use of sex.

Ironically, this peacemaker among apes is in the process of meeting a rapid and violent end in its war-torn and poverty-stricken home nation. Bushmeat hunting with snares and guns has decimated the bonobo population, which has plunged from an estimated 100,000 in 1980 to less than 10,000 today. Uncontrolled logging, mining, and the expansion of agriculture threaten to wipe out the Congo Basin's rainforests, leaving the bonobo's future in the wild in doubt. Hopefully, conservation measures will succeed in preserving a place in our world for this fun-loving and intelligent primate, a species that shares over 98% of its genetic blueprint with humans.

Artist's Statement

Charles Alexander has this to say about this work: "Reaction to this painting embraces a broad spectrum of emotions, from laughter to fascination to outright dismissal. I find it interesting that many people find humor in the piece. People often laugh when they realize how close we are to "nonhuman" primates--and the bonobo is as close as you can get. Fortunately, I sense that most people identify with the painting on some level -- and the majority of viewers smile, as if in recognition.

One viewer asked if the bonobo was admiring himself in a mirror, which started me thinking that perhaps the painting itself represents a mirror-- a reflection of kinship with the Great Apes that offers something different for each viewer. Looking into such a mirror--so close to man, but not a man--clearly disturbs some people, which I find fascinating.

Throughout history people have tended to view the apes as a repository of everything base that man wants to reject in himself, which of course is a very limited--and outdated -- point of view. To my mind, the apes reflect tremendous honesty and joy in living in the moment: man without the layers of pretense, the layers of facade that make us "socially acceptable."

While painting the bonobo, I sensed that there was no guile there, no facade. The bonobo was simply facing the world as is, with no pretense. That kind of unadorned honesty and self-possession is always compelling. I also thought of the title--Bonobo: Interrupted Thought-- as meaning that here is a creature so like us, living a peaceful existence, with thoughts, feelings, and emotions that are quite complex --and yet those thoughts, those lives, are being violently disrupted and ended without a care. People are eating bonobos, cutting off their legs, their arms, their heads--and eating them. That thinker that you see here -- will his peaceful, complex, self-contained world --once interrupted --ever return to what it was? Can the thinker of thoughts so close to ours even continue to exist in a world of escalating human-induced chaos?"

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