Artist Spotlight — 6/23/2018
Interview with Monster Kitty Society
CC: Hey Tanith, welcome to the Crypt and thank your contributing to our pool of creepy creators and appreciators! Let’s not waste any time and dig our claws right into the good stuff! How would you describe your own personal mix of creepy, cute, and catty in just 100 words?
TC: Monster Kitty Society marries my love of cute, cuddly, but sometimes mischievous cats with something a little darker. Often times the cute wins out but it’s not without a dark side. It is literally fulfilling my 15-year-old self’s’ ultimate dream in life.
CC: The best part about adulthood is finally getting to live out all the crazy things you dreamed about growing up. You say your work is cute, but also has a dark side. Where does that dark side come from? Is there anything particularly creepy or spooky that inspires you?
TC: The biggest inspiration in my youth would probably be the work of Rob Reger, the creator of Emily the Strange. I was literally obsessed with Emily, the books, the comics. Her attitude was my attitude. I also really loved all those “happy” Halloween movies, like The Addams Family, Beetlejuice, Casper, Halloweentown. I would also attribute the fact that when I was growing up my father “made” me watch whatever he was watching. Yeah, he let me watch “conventional” kid movies, however, whenever we went to see a movie in theaters it was never something I wanted. For instance my first movie in theaters was Independence Day, I was 5. He also loved old movies and my favorites were always the classic monster movies for some reason.
CC: I love classic monster movies! Monster Kitty Society features a lot of nostalgic monsters as cute cats, is that something you think was inspired by your childhood, and are there any other pieces of yourself that pop up in your work at times?
TC: Most definitely! Scorch my Dragon Cat is an homage to Dungeons and Dragons. His birthday is the same as Gary Gygax. I play a lot of tabletop games and that has been one of my favorite hobbies for the past 7 years. Sonar my deep sea bioluminescent water cat reflects my love of the ocean. I grew up in Hawaii until I was 16 and I spent a lot of time at the ocean at night, mostly because my mom hated crowds and didn’t want me to get sunburned. So at night, you’d see tons of bioluminescent plankton on the shore, I used the chase them. It also didn’t hurt I was pretty fearless for night swimming too. Just a couple of examples, each cat is pretty personal. Making a new one usually has a memory attached to them.
CC: Those are incredible little snippets into your creative process. I love how personal each one is. With so many monster kitties now, which one do you feel represents you the most?
TC: That is so hard! It’s like asking a mom to pick their favorite child. But I’m a bad mom I guess because I do have favorites. My two favorites are Spy the Cyclops, and Sonar the Deep Sea Bioluminescent Cat. Spy is an homage to my father who passed away a couple years before I started Monster Kitty Society, and Sonar because personality wise, I think we’re pretty identical but he’s a bit cooler than I am.
CC: I know, I know, I’m a bad person for making you choose! That’s an incredible way to memorialize someone you love though. Does it ever get hard to think about that loss since it’s something you see again and again when you’re drawing?
TC: It’s a reminder of why I’m doing this sometimes. I try not to remember the sadness of loss but it’s a memory of all the good times. I wouldn’t be half as interesting without him. How many people can say the first movie they saw in theaters was Independence Day? Most of my friends it was The Little Mermaid, or Beauty and the Beast but I got to see Will Smith y’know be Will Smith and save the White House from Aliens.
CC: My first movie was A Bug’s Life, yours was certainly more interesting. I’m glad you motivate yourself by focusing on the positive! Let’s wrap this up with something fun on that note! You, and all the Monster Kitties are starring in a horror movie, what’s it called?
TC: It’s funny I have sketches of my Monster Kitties doing parody horror movie covers. Let’s see…”Revenge of Shred” He’s my were-cat and is a terribly jealous cat. He’d be trying to kill his siblings so he’d be the last Monster Kitty standing. Therefore, he gets all of the affection.
CC: I want to see that movie! Thank you so much for sharing your incredible work with us, we’re so glad you’re part of our crypt!
TC: Anytime!
Follow the Monster Kitty Society and maybe even catch their film debut on…
AND OF COURSE, THE PART YOU’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR — THE WINNER OF THE GIVEAWAY.
The winner is…
Mina Hall! We’ll be in contact with you shortly to deliver you your prize!
