'Ratical,' an upcoming rat-themed St. Pete art show benefits Florida Rat Rescue

Do you have what it takes to make rats beautiful? If so, consider submitting your rat-themed artwork to Brandy Stark’s "Ratical!" art show.

Ratical! brings two of Stark’s passions—rats and art—together at St. Pete’s ArtLofts this April. But, why rats?

“I wanted to raise awareness,” Stark told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “In part, I feel bad for rats…Some of the stories I’ve heard are kind of sad — people just abandoning them or putting them out in nature. There are just a lot of misconceptions. So Florida Rat Rescue, as well as World Rat Day, is all about teaching, and removing, some of the stigma against pet rats...”
According to Stark, the maligned rodents make good pets. She quickly points out that she’s not talking about street rats or wild rats. She’s talking about rats bred to be human companions—rats sold in pet stores.

Stark bought her first rat at PetSmart about 20 years ago.

“We went in and they had a set of hairless rats, and they were both boys,” Stark told CL. “I had never seen hairless rats. They didn’t look like rats to me. They were really different looking. I remember my mother was with me. This was back in the day when I was a young adult. I talked to her about this, and she said, ‘I think you should get them.’ And I’m like, ‘No, they’re rats…’”

But Stark brought them home with her. She named her boys Khufu and Khafre after the Ancient Egyptian pyramid builders. “They were so alien looking; they kind of reminded me of the Egyptian Anubis with its long, pointed face,” says Stark, who studied ancient history in college.

Khufu and Khafre are long gone—rats only live for about two years—but others have taken their place. Stark now has two rat colonies (called “mischiefs”), including one with five rats and the other with four rats. She describes them as super intelligent, joyful creatures who love to eat.

“In the morning, if I don’t move fast enough, the girls will start chewing on the wires of their cages, making all this horrible racket because they want to eat,” Stark told CL. “They are good eaters. I am always amazed because they look so small, yet they get all this food. And it’s gone. And I’m like, ‘How are you eating all this?’”

In addition to being entertaining pets, rats have played an interesting role in art history. As a part-time professor, currently at State College of Florida, Stark often speaks about the role of animals in art. When I ask her about depictions of rats, she begins with the elephant-headed Hindu God Ganesh. “His vehicle is a rat,” says Stark.

“In cartoons in the west, you see elephants looking like they’re afraid of rats,” Stark continues. “But in India, it can represent a couple of different things, like Ganesh can make all things possible.”

Things like turning a demon into a rat and then riding it around town.

“Even though he’s a gigantic figure, he can ride upon a rat because he’s a God figure. Sometimes people will say that rats represent that voracious appetite. On a spiritual and metaphysical level, [they represent] the need to acquire rather than renunciate, which is Shiva’s path. So when Ganesh rides upon the rat, it’s also a symbol of renunciation, of controlling that urge to acquire.”

“The rat was seen as humble for the Chinese calendar,” Stark continues. “In the Middle Ages, unfortunately, the rat does become seen as a symbol of illness and the devil….”

So, hungry and greedy in India, humble in China, and the devil in Europe during the bubonic plague. “That’s always kind of an interesting mix,” says Stark.

But for this art show, rats are cute. They beg like dogs, eat Cheerios and mac and cheese like toddlers, feature in animated films, and do a little dance when they’re happy. So think “Ratatouille” and get rat-a-crafty. If you need some inspiration, Stark suggests watching this WEDU PBS interview with fellow pet rat owner and Florida artist Alexis Ellis, who’s participating in the show.

The deadline to submit artwork to ArtLofts “RATical!” is March 31. The show is free to enter, but ArtLofts requests artists donate 20% of their sales to Florida Rat Rescue.