PIRATS A mischief of rats trail (Hull and East Yorkshire ) The Daisy Appeal
Sponsor; The Grand Order of Water Rats This design was altered specifically for the sponsor, to add a Grand Collar!
Pirats is a storytelling illustration inspired by fantasy tales of pirates and adventures at sea. But this time it’s the rats stealing the treasure as they commandeer a shipwreck! Nods to Mick Ronson (of the acclaimed Yorkshire band ‘The Rats’ ) wash up in the waves, luckily to be saved by the pesky rodents. They get their little claws on Mick’s famed Gibson guitar and plectrum, his Vox tone bender pedal, sheet music for the track ‘I Feel Free’, and Mick’s solo album Play don’t worry’ on vinyl!. A wooden spoon bobs about reminding us of 1965 The Rats single ‘Spoonful’ one mischievous fellow clambers over the Mick Ronson biography ’Turn to face the strange’…..and a rat in a bottle looks up to ‘Heaven and Hull’, Mick’s third solo album! Finally, an alien spider hangs precariously from the moon, harking back to Ronson’s guitar wrangling Bowie days in The Spiders from Mars.
Details
I absolutely love a deep dive into the subject matter and story I want to tell, so discovering ways to inject these little details into to an overall design was all of the fun. So this is a little peek into the story of Mick and The Rats, as well as a quirky celebration of Hull’s maritime history.
original design reference
Painting process
In situ outside the Hull Truck Theatre during the trail
Life beyond the trail!
Pirats now has a permanent home outside Hull History Centre, Worship Street. You can find my rat standing on the terrace between the History Centre and the Old English Gentleman public house and can be visited at any time. Toad in the Hull is located nearby.