A symbol of Capitol HIll’s “Hot Rat Summer” has been restored — partially — on the historic Cal Anderson Gatehouse.
Dedicated neighbors, artists, and two members of the Seattle City Council gathered on the hottest day of the year so far to restore the surprisingly radiant rat mosaic after the city painted over it in what some are calling a bureaucratic blunder and others see as an act of erasure.
“It’s such a beautiful mural that’s taken so many hours,” said Bug, a Vegas transplant new to the city, who showed up solo to help uncover the piece. “Just to cover it up, like, out of spite? It didn’t make sense to me. Especially in a city that’s so filled with art.”
Bug, who said they first saw the mural on Instagram and later learned it had been painted over through Reddit, wasn’t the only one moved to act. Other dedicated mural appreciators were there. “I just came and did it on my own,” Bug said. “This is the second time I showed up to uncover it.”
The mosaic mural was painted on the side of the landmarked Seattle Public Utilities Gatehouse building above Cal Anderson’s reflecting pool. It has became a source of neighborhood pride in the spunky expression of a neighborhood dedicated to having a good time despite any hard times and challenges. That made it all the more surprising when city crews painted over it.
Seattle City Councilmembers Joy Hollingsworth and Alexis Mercedes Rinck joined residents Wednesday to help gently scrub the white paint off the rat.
“To me, this is not graffiti. This is art,” Hollingsworth said. “I think it’s a balance and an understanding. This is not vandalizing the community.”
Hollingsworth earlier this week joined the rest of the council — except for Rinck — voting in favor of a new civil penalty for graffiti.
“I feel like this is my duty to come out here,” she said. “I’m not a desktop person. I’ve worked on a farm. I’ve driven forklifts. I’ve driven trucks out of food banks. This is the stuff I like to do, in concert with my legislative duties.”
As for the mix-up, Hollingsworth says wires were crossed.
“This is actually a Seattle Public Utilities building. It was communicated with Parks and didn’t get to SPU in time. So now we’re just figuring out a little bit of the bureaucracy.”
Rinck, who voted against the anti-graffiti ordinance, emphasized the need for more community-driven arts processes and protections.
“This neighborhood has been through it,” Rinck said. “This is something beautiful. It’s a celebration, also in recognition of the trans community, and it brings people a lot of joy.”
Hollingsworth agrees the mural should stay—and even be protected going forward. She said she’s working with the Parks Department to identify the artist, get formal permission, and possibly pay them for additional work.
“If the artists come forward and sign a document with the city saying they want to keep it, then we’re going to preserve it,” Hollingsworth said. “The city’s also going to support the art on the windows here. I want those artists to come forward so we can pay them.”
Kylie, a longtime parkgoer, saw the mural as a kind of neighborhood in-joke—but with layers.
“To me, it’s like the Capitol Hill thing, right?” she said. “It’s a rat that is being worshiped as a saint. There are rats all over this park. It’s subversive, deifying what would be considered vermin by the majority of the population.”
There is also frustration that public art like this gets wiped away without notice.
“If they really cared, they would have sponsored art projects for this for years,” Kylie said.
Doria, another local resident, was more blunt.
“I think it’s really performative,” she said of the councilmembers’ appearance. “Especially given that Hollingsworth voted for the anti-graffiti ordinance yesterday. They’re just trying to get a photo op over art that’s not even theirs.”
Still, Doria said the mural’s power is in the way it has moved regular people.
“That shows more than any city council members coming with all these news crews,” she said. “The folks who showed up just because they care, that’s what this is about.”
Both Rinck and Hollingsworth say they want the mural preserved long-term. The historic Gatehouse is a protected landmark but its false bays have been used as a sort of public art gallery for years. CHS reported on one display of student art organized above the reflecting pool in 2017. More recently, the building was the backdrop for a video art protest against the Trump administration. There is a longterm plan for the building to be illuminated as part of a public safety-oriented overhaul to Cal Anderson’s lighting.
In the meantime, residents continued to gently scrub, uncover, and protect the mural that made them stop and smile in the first place.
Or, as Rinck summed it up on the scene, “These are dark times. Let the people have rat.”
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.
Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month — or choose your level of support 👍
