An art Student Trains Her Pet Rat to Make Paintings with his Feet

Amalie Markota Andersen, a 22-year-old animation and digital arts student from Askim, Norway, recently shocked people with her pet rat Darius whom she taught how to paint using his feet.

Andersen proudly posted about her pet’s achievements on her Twitter account, writing that he completed his first painting at the beginning of last year

According to Andersen, it took Darius about 10 minutes to complete each painting and that she ultimately sold about three or four of his pieces of work.

“When I had Darius, I got a non-toxic watercolor set, dipped his little hands and feet in it and just let him walk back and forth on the paper until it started to look like something,” said Andersen.

The Tumblr post went unexpectedly viral overnight, with the student saying it’s what he deserved before adding: ‘Darius going viral was very exciting, I was so happy people liked him.’

After his viral fame, Amalie decided to let Darius create more paintings, each of which took the rat approximately 10 minutes to create.

The 22-year-old explained how she went on to commission around three or four of his originals, using the money to buy her pet a new harness so he could explore the outdoors safely.

She explained how she now regrets selling the original work ‘a little bit’, as Darius sadly passed away earlier this year. However, she said it makes her ‘very happy’ to know his works are out there somewhere – ‘hopefully still intact and well’.

Amalie adopted Darius in 2017 at an unknown age, although it was assumed he was old. She described her pet rat as ‘timid and shy’ and cuddly ‘like a little baby’.

Unfortunately, Darius died earlier in 2019, probably of old age Andersen said.

The student said their time together was extremely impactful for her, particularly because she adopted him at a ‘weird time’ in her life when she was trying to figure out who she was as a person. ‘He was my light in the darkness, if you will,’ Amalie explained

She says she will be ‘forever infinitely thankful’ to him for the impact he had, not only on her but ‘the thousands of people who fell in love with him and his little painting’.