Of Mice and Mayhem

I have been tackling a mouse and rat problem. Artistically and literally. Living aboard an old boat full of warm nooks and crannies has posed the dilemma of unexpected guests……guests that don’t leave. Guests that eat half a turnip and protest wee on your kitchen surface. Guests that have quite the affinity for Oreo chocolate, T-shirt sleeves and earphones. Guests that live rent free and keep you up all night. The cutest, furriest little unwanted guests. And art imitates life in this instance. To help me to ‘cope’ with these relentless, unpoisonable miniature beasts, is to imagine the adventures they are having at the expense of big dopey humans like myself. And so I began to be inspired by the situation. I read somewhere that the mythological way our ancestors viewed the world, mice were the embodiment of impure, chthonic forces, and after the winter I just endured, I admit I concur. The ancient Egyptians were terrified of them, warranted though-as they were destroyers of their crops and subsequently their lives were at the mercy of the little tyrants. (Again, I relate, that Oreo chocolate situation left me in an emotional calorie deciding). They were supposedly harbingers of goddess Sekhmet, the bringer of pestilence. ‘The bringer of pestilence’ has a good ring to it, it’s how I refer to them now. Perhaps it was also why the Egyptians revered cats so much……I did try the Egyptian cat head approach but alas the teeny critters were having none of my sudden feline traits…….

I was surprised to discover how significant and powerful a role mice play in Greek mytholoy-associated with Apollo, who was sometimes called ‘Lord of the Mice’ (again amazing title), and often allowed, even encouraged, to nest under his altar in temples. The mouse, like Apollo, was believed to be a healer not just in Ancient Greece but in other cultures too. The profiles of mice were stamped on coins for various city-states, which sounds SO FANTASTIC. I’d love to have more animal portraiture on cash. Anyway, at some point we as a culture decided to stop giving mice a bad rep and in most stories and folklore I recall as a child, the mouse is always the brave little hero, overcoming obstacles despite his or hers tiny stature. But I prefer the dark mousy stuff. One of my favourite tales growing up was The Pied Piper of Hamlin, and as an introverted and anxious child I embraced the role of ‘200th rat’ in our school production, finally managing to blend in. Ironically, as I made my way through the ‘rat race’ of adultdom, I couldn’t wait to drop out and fight blending in as much as possible. I’d overlooked how horrific that story actually is. In some lore and mythology, if the lost baby tooth of a child was found by an animal, the adult teeth that would follow would bear resemblance to the teeth of that animal. -a mouse was often the animal of choice, because rodent teeth are sharp, and keep growing. Another tooth related one dates back to 18th Century France ‘The Little Good Mouse ‘ -a story which spoke of a fairy who transformed herself into a mouse to be able to defeat an evil king. The fairy, in her mouse form, hid herself under the pillow of the king and caused all his teeth to fall out. I love these creepy, darker mouse tales. All this researching as well as the sleepless nights and rodent-infused fever dreams have conjured up some concepts for some illustrations which I’ve been working on.