Sean D'Anconia x Hello Kitty “Crouching Kitty, Hello Dragon” – 9 Lives of the Kitty Show

Originally, this was to be a 3-panel triptic, but as the story came together in my mind, so did the title – a parody of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”. And then there was the issue of “Hello Kitty” style dragons. In fact, there is a truly “hidden dragon” in the piece. But you would need to look for it carefully. The one behind my “Crouching Miyamoto-Musashi Kitty-Chan” is um, really more of a hidden Hello Kitty in a dinosaur outfit, but then who’s counting?

The idea behind this piece revolved around creating a birthplace for Hello Kitty’s ancient ancestors. I thought that a magical land between Japan, China and Korea could be the spot. Where Martial Arts masters mixed with dragons, dinosaurs, monks and other friends! And inside the magical eggs with the Kanji for “love” were more kitties waiting to be born.

The whole “kittyrific” world is sort of a “musical” for your eyes, if that makes sense.

One of the goals of this work was to take Hello Kitty out of the range of some of the less than “kawaii” aesthetic that I’ve seen of late, and return her to the her “cute/pink/pretty” sensibility but with an edge. That edge, which is both irreverent and reverent at the same time, draws attention to many Japanese concepts of art and design which have been lost to American audiences. I wanted to show that Kitty could be herself while still being inspiring for non-kitty fans interested in an idealic universe of pleasure and candy-coated beauty.

In fact, Hello Kitty or “Kitty White” as she is known on her school attendance list, was indeed born in London, England. But this is a magical tale of her previous lives. And while it does not feature the birth of Kitty-chan, or her first parents (I’m still considering that profound question), it does show many of the early kitties in a martial arts epic harkening back to something like a 60′s Shaw Brothers Studio production (Hong Kong). Luckily, I’m free to direct and write all the music anytime Sanrio asks me to. ^=^

I experimented with some candy-color mixing techniques here. I wanted my “Hello Kitty(s)” to look like they were shades of smarties, pocky, fruit loops, etc. Something good enough to eat, if only Acrylic tasted better than um…paint.

One of the little details that I like to throw in are the atraditional kimono patterns which you see adorning my little Hello Kitty dinosaurs. Along with Ancient Samurai Ka-Mon (family seals). In addition, many of my pieces are finished with original Hello Kitty hanafuda on the side panels – something I picked up from my (adopted) master, Yokoo Tadanori when he dominated Japan’s outsider art scene in the 60′s/70′s. Hanafuda are “flower cards” which were invented by Nintendo, dating from the mid 1800′s and adopted by the Yakuza as an important gambling tool.