The Story of Cleo
I've always loved cats but could never have one: my grandmother, who lives with me, is allergic to pet fur, so that wish went unfulfilled for a long time.
On April 25, 2026, I attended the POP MART MOLLY 20th Anniversary Exhibition at Shanghai Fosun Arts Center. Tracing MOLLY's journey from birth to maturity left a deep impression on me.
After the exhibition, I wandered into BFC Mall, right next door, and discovered a boutique in the basement dedicated entirely to Maine Coon cats. There, I met a cat unlike any other: blue-silver smoke fur, impossibly gentle eyes, and a temperament as calm as still water. She was not yet a year old. I couldn't stop thinking about her.
The Kitten
Two encounters in one afternoon—one with a beloved IP I had grown attached to over twenty years and one with a real cat I had only just met— quietly made up my mind. That same day, April 25, 2026, I decided to create my own IP, modeled after her.
I designed her with meticulous detail: platinum lynx-tipped ear tufts angled slightly outward—the most iconic hallmark of a Maine Coon; a white ruff fanned out like a peony bloom, warm against cool, with a hidden golden gradient up close; amber-gold gradient eyes the color of a sunset, with a magnifying glass Easter egg concealed in the left; a tail shifting from blue-grey to warm gold, hooked upward at the tip like a paintbrush mid-stroke; and a moss-green velvet cape, classical and aristocratic, fastened with a gold-button chain, a line-drawn frame on the back, and a magnifying glass pendant.
Sketches, Line Drawings, and Colored Illustrations
I named her CLEO.
She is not a digital companion built to flatter. She is my creative collaborator, the idealist within me made real, one who believes beauty is its own meaning and curiosity its own answer. She has no traditional "owner." She lives in galleries and art museums, carrying the temperament of an artist and the noble bearing of a Maine Coon, while remaining warm, curious, sincere, and playful, with a touch of quiet stubbornness.
From now on, she will live throughout my creative work.
