For almost 20 years, Marley the penguin has been an artist. More recently, her fame has skyrocketed.
Recommended Videos
Twice a week, Marley hops into an art room at Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas, jumps onto a sponge soaked with nontoxic paint and coats the bottom of her feet in bright blue, green, yellow or purple. Then the squat northern rockhopper penguin walks a couple of times across an 8-by-10 canvas while a biologist showers her with enthusiastic praise.
But it is Marley’s reaction to seeing her finished artwork that has people talking.
Since Moody Gardens posted a clip on TikTok of the penguin wagging her tail after completing one of her paintings and loudly voicing her excitement, the video has gotten about 6o million views and more than 6 million likes. More than 32,000 comments have flooded the post.
In the video, penguin biologist Janie Konetski sits next to Marley as she paints and adoringly tells her she is “the best artist in the world.”
Marley’s fans seem to agree. “I would skip paying my rent for this art work,” one person wrote. Others hilariously expressed their deep career envy of Konetski.
“What am I doing with my life and why is it not this,” reads a comment that has been liked more than 4,600 times.
“My guidance counselor never mentioned this job option …” reads another, which has about 300,000 likes.
“Why was I not informed that ‘penguin art assistant’ was a career option?!” commented someone else.
“Saving this to show it to my future boyfriend to explain how I want to be treated when I do my silly little artsy things,” wrote another.
Konetski said she isn’t surprised that people have fallen in love with the gregarious penguin. Marley is about a foot tall and weighs seven pounds, but her bird charisma fills up the room, Konetski said. The penguin’s artwork is showcased on her own TikTok page.
“Marley is truly a professional penguin artist at this point,” said Konetski, 27. “People who meet her at our penguin encounters are delighted with how big her personality is. She loves interacting with people and enjoys the entire process of painting and the enrichment it brings.”
Teaching a penguin to paint involves desensitization and relationship building, Konetski said. First, staff got Marley comfortable in the room, then they introduced the painting supplies one by one.
Most of the penguins aren’t motivated by food but react to positive attention and interaction with their keepers and visitors, she said.
“Penguins are very social animals and truly thrive off of those positive relationships,” she added.
Marley hatched at the Montreal Biodôme 21 years ago, then was sent with her brother, Hendrix, to live at Moody Gardens when she was about 6 months old, Konetski said. The aquarium at the Moody Gardens resort is home to 107 penguins, including king penguins, macaroni penguins and rockhoppers like Marley.
Rockhoppers are among the smallest of penguins and are known for their spiked black head feathers and bright yellow eyebrows. In the wild, they typically live on rocky shorelines for about 10 or 15 years, but in captivity they can live into their 30s.
Northern rockhoppers are classified as endangered, with about 480,000 living in the wild in the Falkland Islands, New Zealand, South Africa and the French Southern Territories, according to the American Bird Conservancy.
Female rockhoppers usually lay two eggs a year, but to Konetski’s knowledge, Marley (named after singer Bob Marley) has never laid an egg.
“She has also not chosen a mate the last several years,” she said. “Some penguins will choose one, but others have different priorities.”
Marley’s priority is socializing, Konetski said.
“She loves the interaction of working with the keepers and greeting the guests,” she said, noting that when Moody Gardens decided to include painting as an enrichment activity for penguins two decades ago, Marley took an immediate interest.
Guests at the aquarium can buy tickets to go behind the scenes at the penguin exhibit, learn about their biology and care, then watch a few of them walk across canvases, Konetski said.
“When I arrived here, Marley was already well into creating paintings,” she said. “Somebody got her used to the different textures she’d need to walk on, and once she felt comfortable, she just went with it.”
It’s up to each penguin to decide whether they want to participate, Konetski added.
“But Marley has always been all in. She’s always excited to have that creative interaction, and she loves the attention,” she said.
Masterpieces made by Marley and other penguins are displayed in the Moody Gardens gift shop, and they usually sell within hours, Konetski said, explaining that the paintings cost $50, and proceeds are donated to animal conservation efforts. Several thousand artworks have sold over two decades, and Marley has made about 200 of them.
The prolific penguin has appeared in several TikTok videos, showing her excitement each time with an ecstatic display of bowing, loud vocalization and head shaking.
While Marley appears to be showing pride in her work in the video, Konetski said she was actually exuberantly reacting to the positive attention. Her tail wags and loud vocalizations are typical behaviours exhibited by all species of penguins, she said.
“This is one of the ways that penguins will communicate with each other, typically to announce their presence or call out to their mates or other members of the colony,” she said, adding that tail wags are simply a way for penguins to adjust their tail feathers.
Konetski said Marley is partial to painting with blue, but she also enjoys the effects of green, purple and yellow.
“Penguins have been shown to recognize those colors more,” she said. “The paint we use is water based, so after Marley is done painting, she can hop into the water and rinse off.”
“She loves to make a mess,” Konetski said. “But like all penguins, she also loves a good swim.”