A mystery is afoot among our neighbors to the north, elegant in its simplicity but with pat answers slowly unraveling the longer you think about it. It is a maddening conundrum from the art world — specifically snow art, extra-specifically bear snow art. It is a question posed by Montreal reporter Kate McKenna. First, the art in question:
Wholesome snow art on the Lachine canal ❤️ pic.twitter.com/pQIxellzRx
— Kate McKenna (@katemckenna8) January 30, 2019
Simple, adorable and moving in its way. A reflection on nature and our tenuous relationship with our fellow mammals. But this piece poses more than just existential questions, it also poses practical ones. Namely, how on earth did that bear get its belly button without messing up the snow around it?
PLEASE HELP SOLVE THIS MYSTERY: how did the artist(s) make the bellybutton?? https://t.co/AiTjf4cGhW
— Kate McKenna (@katemckenna8) January 30, 2019
It’s the sort of question that catches you by surprise. You start to answer, “Well, obviously he or she just …uh …they just…” and then you scratch your head and realize that every obvious answer has some big problems. It’s worth noting here that the bear’s belly button has about six feet of untouched snow on either side of it.
On Twitter, some people suggested the artist(s) just threw a snowball, which is possible but you’d need to have some pretty good aim. Many people thought the artist might have executed an incredible leap, but to do so without falling over and then to likewise be able to jump back out without any sort of run to get some distance sounds almost impossible. Some users suggested a drone could have been used but that night’s temperatures dropped to -4F, and drone batteries can’t operate for more than a few minutes under such conditions. One imaginative individual suggested a bird or something just happened to land right where a belly button would be. Here at RELEVANT, we would remind you that whenever you look back and see no footprints, that’s when Jesus was carrying you. That’s not necessarily an answer to the present riddle but it seems like it’s worth bringing up.
There’s no clear answer here and the artists themselves have yet to come forward to explain their belly button craft. CBC was sent a photo of what sure looks like two people in the middle of making their bear art, but it answers as many questions as it raises because neither of them appear to have any tools!
Not every mystery has an answer. Some just exist to confound experts and remind us that the world is not nearly so simple as we imagine. But nevertheless, surely someone can crack this one. How did these two make a bear belly button?