Part sweet, but creepy-cute is here to stay

around goth, punk and graffiti culture, painting this kind of style felt a very natural way to express my teenage angst and awkwardness.’’

She said her work has ‘‘matured’’, but still features characters in fantastical madeup lands that have an element of darkness.

‘‘I’m really loving exploring characters made up from nature – creepy floral tree people, rituals and being a woman in this world. Motherhood all tied together with costumes and a theatrical, pantomime vibe.’’ Along with original art works, creepy-cute characters often appear on dinnerware, vases, as figurines, and as textile prints.

Online craft market Etsy is the best place to hunt out the kimo-kawaii look – a search might reveal a crochet child’s toy shaped like an anatomical human heart or a knitted draft stopper in the form of a parasitic worm.

And if an inanimate object isn’t quite creepy or cute enough, many pets are also considered kimo-kawaii.

Squashed-faced pugs and hairless cats fit the bill, but Chinese crested dogs are the strangest of the lot.

Even with their mottled skin, pointed faces, wonky teeth and random tufts of hair, their owners think they’re adorable.

‘‘Some people can hardly look at him, but some do come up and say that he’s gorgeous,’’ said Dave Bridgman, proud owner of a Chinese crested called Bonsai.

‘‘We think he’s a beautiful dog, he’s got an unusual personality but he doesn’t demand much. He just sticks to you like velcro.’’

Bridgman and wife Zoe adopted him as a rescue dog after nobody else wanted him.

‘‘He was a mess, he was covered in melanoma, blind, deaf and petrified of stairs,’’ he said. ‘‘When we got him home we just thought ‘what the hell?’ But we’ve grown to adore him.’’

And that’s the thing about kimo-kawaii. Spend enough time around it and it tends to grow on you.

‘‘My love for Japanese art growing up inspired me a lot, manga and old cartoons that combined cuteness and violence.’’ Tanja Jade McMillan