Kitty and Mona Lisa

I noticed the other day while looking at images of Hello Kitty that Kitty has no mouth. And then I read something somewhere that said that her lack of a mouth makes it easy to look at Kitty and reflect your own mood or expression onto her. If you're happy, then Kitty looks happy to you. If you're mad, maybe Kitty looks mad. (Although, I'm not sure that's really possible- Kitty? Mad?) That's a theory anyway.

It made me think about the Mona Lisa. It was once pointed out to me that there are no lines around Mona Lisa's mouth to indicate what her expression is. It's hard to tell if she's smiling, or not.

Both Hello Kitty and Mona Lisa are images recognized by people all over the world. And also loved by many. And both a little mysterious...