Council Member Joy Hollingsworth Wants To Authorize “Hot Rat Summer” Mosaic After Hiking Fines On The Organic Community Expression It Comes From

Council Member Joy Hollingsworth just declared “Hot Rat Year.” The Seattle Parks Department and Puget Sound Energy have plastered over the iconic “Hot Rat Summer” mosaic mural in Cal Anderson at least half a dozen times this year, including once earlier this week. Usually community members restore the art — and it seems they dosed it in paint stripper Tuesday night. But this time Hollingsworth and her council colleague Alexis Mercedes Rinck had enough, so they ditched City Hall early, armed with an assortment of tools and chemicals, and got to work cleaning up the mosaic. And Hollingsworth says this won’t ever happen again — that is, if the artist or artists come forward.

Hollingsworth is asking these artists to come forward to sign a document that will sanction the street art and allow the City to preserve it. Hollingsworth also wants the City to commission artists to fill the other recessed archways around the pump house. She’s already secured the money for it in last year’s budget negotiations too.

From what The Burner has gathered, the creation and the maintenance of the mosaic in Cal Anderson is not the work of a single genius, but rather a band of local artists that, as of Wednesday evening, want to remain anonymous. The Burner made several attempts, but could not reach the artists behind the mosaic, so it's unclear if Hollingsworth's pitch feels like an adequate resolution for them. Many street artists cringe at the thought of their scrappy street art becoming City sanctioned, especially one like Hot Rat Summer, which is part of unauthorized, all trans art installation that's been otherwise wiped away. But some artists may jump at the opportunity to give Hollingsworth their signatures to protect their art from the wrath of the City’s gray paint. And after a recent City Council vote, there may be even more incentive to let the City authorize the mosaic.

On Tuesday, while the paint covering the mosaic dried, the Seattle City Council voted 7-1 to hike fines on graffiti (going forward and retroactively for three years) from $1,000 to $1,500. Rinck, the only reliable progressive, voted no. Proponents offered vague, feeble attempts to distinguish street art that constitutes “blight” and what constitutes community expression. Hollingsworth said she supported the legislation because it was aimed at “taggers” and she would not consider the mosaic a tag. However, the recently passed law deals with “grafitti, which, by the letter of the law, includes any “unauthorized markings, visible from premises open to the public, that have been placed upon any property through the use of paint, ink, chalk, dye or any other substance capable of marking property.”

Of course, if the City authorizes the mosaic, with the permission of the artists, then it will no longer fit the definition of graffiti. But the City may see future Hot Rat Summer debacles if they continue to stifle street art from a simple artist tag to something as labor intensive as a giant glass tile mosaic. The newly passed law hikes up fees for the also beloved St. Rat tags across the City, other unauthorized street art with neighborhood significance, and things council members may see merit in regardless of its legality. The beautiful, weird, organic art that pops up around Seattle is still illegal and comes with a now heftier fine unless the government decides they like it too.