All those acquainted with the raccoon as found in art are aware of the sheer abundance of styles and techniques which can be used in their portrayal. Despite the profound range of approaches an artist might take in the creation these pieces of art, there often feels to be a distinct lack of uniqueness or character to the work, specifically present within those which have been drawn or painted. The author of this essay has developed a hypothesis to explain why this sensation of mundanity has overwhelmed many raccoon-art aestheticians, and what the community can do to address the issue.

The painfully evident truth of why many modern representations of trashbears seem to be devoid of originality is that there is a dearth of thematic variation. When browsing through raccoon art, it's impossible to look in any direction and not see some form of the "whimsical raccoon" trope. Though not a particularly destructive trope in the context of public perception of the raccoon as an animal which has a mask built into its biology, the trope has become a cliché (and is thus artistically destructive) and needs to be quickly phased out of the zeitgeist. There is some value in the inherently unrealistic presentation of the raccoon with a look of happiness or excitement (as these are expressions rarely observed on traditional raccoons), perhaps appealing to those with an interest in the absurd or surreal, but there exists a real and present cultural danger in the fact that such a great number of works all try to touch on that same point. This essay will not discuss, in meaningful depth, the harm that stagnation, uniformity, and sameness has on art (as it's a topic which has been written about since the invention of the mechanical pencil), rather simply point out the truth that these things are becoming toxic [potentially fatally so if a change isn't made quickly] to the future of the raccoon in all artistic mediums.

- JS