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Kessukoofah

Cory
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  1. How long have you been on DeviantArt?

    Nearly 7 years. Wow...

  2. What does your username mean?

    Gutter Elven for Fool. Also a bit of a slangy French for "What do we do?".

  3. Describe yourself in three words.

    Gregarious, loyal, wordy.

  4. Are you left or right handed?

    Left Handed most of the time.

  5. What was your first deviation?

    I honestly don't remember this, but it seems I started with drawing stuff, not folding stuff.

    Magnus the Binder by Kessukoofah

  6. What is your favourite type of art to create?

    Origami! I love folding paper!

    Ram by Kessukoofah  Bird of Paradise by Kessukoofah Darlene's Snail by Kessukoofah

  7. If you could instantly master a different art style, what would it be?

    Writing. I've always wanted to be a better writer. I have all these stories in my head that just don't want to come out on paper. :(

  8. What was your first favourite?

    This commission that was done for me of my Pathfinder OC:

    Kessul Nekhbhet by butterfrog


  9. What type of art do you tend to favourite the most?

    Either Vector art or Origami.

  10. Who is your all-time favourite deviant artist?

    I'd have to say Hoang Tien Quyet. He's one of me favourite artists in general so that helps.

    Origami Sheep (2015) by HTQuyet Origami Rabbit by HTQuyet Origami Blue Jay by HTQuyet

  11. If you could meet anyone on DeviantArt in person, who would it be?

    Same answer as 10. I feel I'd have a lot to learn and discuss about shaping paper and bringing it to life.

  12. How has a fellow deviant impacted your life?

    Well, not just one, but having people respond to journals and comment on works is encouraging. Keeps me going sometimes.

  13. What are your preferred tools to create art?

    Paper and a smartphone (for reference images).

  14. What is the most inspirational place for you to create art?

    Oddly enough, the local sushi place and bar. All of my personal creations were designed there. Usually while drinking.

  15. What is your favourite DeviantArt memory?

    The mad scramble for Llama badges when they came out. My brothers and I always loved the word Llama...just rolls off the tongue... Lllllllllllaaaaaama. Heh.



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Welp, this is me jumping into the deep end again. And I am so excited about it. I taught myself how to knit, purl, M1L and M1R, and K2T (I think that’s the abbreviation for knit 2 together to decrease), and now I think I’m ready for socks (the whole reason I’m learning to knit now). I've received some Knit Picks Stroll Tonal as practice yarn and I cast on last night. two at a time, toe up on circular needles. According to the women on my group this is the ONLY way to do it. and I've seen their results so I trust them.

This is going to be… interesting. If you want to follow along and have a Ravelry account, my username there is the same as here.

Other things I've been up to:
- My Pony got published here: snkhan.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.p…. IF you are interested in publishing models for the sake of having done so rather than for financial gain, and joining a fun project, keep your eyes on that forum for next year (it opens around October).
- Now I've started on a sheep for this year. or maybe a ram.
- Has anyone ever worked with a blintzed pig base. Folded one up last night and it doesn't' seem very practical, but interesting. 
- Started watching Mudoch Mysteries. It's like CSI meets Sherlock Holmes in Toronto. So addictive and fun!
- Roasted a duck. I've been craving roast duck for about a month now, and I finally got to it. It's got a honey/molassas/chile glaze and is some of the most tender and delicious meat I've ever shredded. On the menu this week: Duck wraps with chickpea ragout on Chinese lettuce. Mmmmm. I'll be roasting more ducks this year.



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Here's a short list of what I'm up to:

- Doing up diagrams for my horse to publish it.
- Crocheting what seems like all the things.
- Taking up knitting so that my knitting friends have a change to laugh at me. They have already begun the friendly mocking and I haven't even touched any needles yet.
- Baking foodstuffs, and cooking some delicious soups.
- Listening to Vitamin String Quartet. Fantastic string versions of popular songs. Very relaxing.
- Watching: Children of Dune miniseries.
- Reading: The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen, Jacques Pepin's autobiography.
- Playing: Pokemon Alpha Sapphire. It's like I'm playing the original game again. I don't remember anything and I have no idea what I'm doing and it's exciting.
- Spending Money on: New kitchen knife and pre-ordering a ticket for The Book of Mormon in April.
- Gyming: Yes.
- Drinking: Merridale Apple Cider (my local bar just put it on tap this week!) Also, Mulled Wine!

Nothing really philosophical to discuss this time around. Pretty happy and just enjoying life. Counting down days until my annual trip home. Will be fun.

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Alright, to preface this, be warned that this might be long, boring, pretentious or whiny. I just need to get some things out on paper (as it were) and out of my head. Sorry...
---
So by now you have all seen "my" Bird of Paradise. This model is really the focal point of a lot of issues that are tied together that have been going through my mind the last couple years. From the description there you can see some of the problems. I'll try to list them here:
    1) The base was GIVEN to me. I didn't create it or figure it out or anything. The base is really the key to the model itself, so giving that to me is sort of like giving me a half-finished puzzle. Is it still me that did it in the end? What if the person who did the first half doesn't care about credit? Should I then call it mine and take full credit or should I always call it a collaboration or what?
    2) What If I then take that base and make something else? Like a hermit crab instead of a flower? Is it my model then, or was the base still given to me? At what point does the divergence become great enough to matter? What if I make another flower?
    3) Finally, what does this mean for traditional bases? What if I take the pig base and create a dog or something? Where does credit go? To what extent is it the guy who shapes the final result or the guy who sets the base that matters?

All of this is what is currently going through my head and why I reached the incredibly decision not to diagram the Bird of Paradise. I have put up the CP for the base as given to me by Joseph Wu, but I will not be putting up the shaping steps. In return, I will continue to call it my design as shorthand and a collab with Joseph for anyone that wants the long version of the story.

For a non-origami allegory, compare it to sampling in music. What if the artist gets permission to sample music and the sampled artist doesn't care about recognition. what does the sampling artist do? Does he not call it his song, or does he always list everyone as "our song"? It seems to vary by artist.
---
A second issue came to light when I was talking to Joseph that time. One of his big things if you talk to him over a long time is the separation of artist and hobbyist. Basically, everything we do at club, everything most origami hobbyists do is what he refers to as "Origami by Numbers". Just (and this is the key thing) doing diagrams out of books, without being creative, innovative, or even really thinking about what goes into it. For about 15 out of the 21 years I've been doing this hobby, this was me. I never really gave much thought to creating my own things. I am, however, exceptionally good at remembering simple models and folds. Ihave memorized more models than anyone else I know. I can sit there for hours and never repeat myself. Most of the time I can even quote the author. I must have hundreds memorized, but only 3 of them (counting the bird of paradise) are mine.

Forgetting about those threes, am I an artist? I can make things, beautiful things, with origami. On demand I can make you almost any animal you pick out (or an acceptable variation)., but I haven't actually created anything of note. What if I knew how to paint, but I could only paint Picasso's Guernica, Monet's scene by the lake and a print by Frank Lloyd Wright. I could do any of them perfectly on demand, but if I tried to sit in front of an easel and paint something in front of me, or even out of my head I froze and it looked terrible? Am I still an artist at that point or am I a hobbyist?

(Yes, I know that comparison is terrible, but I wanted to pick examples most people would know)

I would argue no. I am not an artist at that point. But then, is it enough? That s still a fantastic skill, and one that many people would love to have, but is it enough for the painter in questions to be considered a painter? This is the core question I've been trying to resolve in my ind. What do I want to get out of Origami? Do I want it to be a hobby or an art form for me?

Does it even matter?

For now, I feel like the fact that I am even trying to question this is a good first start. Looking at something that I identify as a core "thing" in my life and questioning what exactly I want to get out of it rather than just letting it just passively sit there... It seems important.

But ya. Other than that life couldn't really be better! And really, if all I have to worry about is how to separate the art and the artist, do I really have anything worth complaining about?

-Cory

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Have you folded anything for the October folding challenge? The theme is Orange! There's prizes and stuff! Get folding!




There are days when I wish I had the discipline to run a blog. I would have called it this. I love that phrase. Also, it's true. I cut down on caffeine one week and went into withdrawals. I'm talking shakes, sweating, headaches, my skin feeling too tight, and then too loose. The works. Right during a really important training session. Not my smartest move. But I was feeling too manic at the time and had to do something.

This brings me to last weekend. Some friends and I wend to the Black Lodge, a restaurant in Vancouver themed after the show Twin Peaks, which we had all watched. The idea was to go, order the cherry pie and coffee and talk about the show. It was great. We all decided to drink our coffee black though. I took a sip and realized that hey, I don't hate this. So now I have apparently started drinking my coffee black.

The FLAVOURS! My good people, I have seen he light. I never realized how much individual flavour a cup of coffee could have. Without the milk and sugar clouding it up I can see why my friends complain about certain places or prefer others.

On to the actual point though, which is that the coffee doesn't seem to be affecting me as quickly (something I now realize was probably the sugar rush), but the affects are lasting longer and I can't process it as fast, which means I can't drink as much at night anymore or I can't sleep. Oh well. A small price to pay for the kind of eye-opening revelations I am experiencing.

In other stuff, You might be wondering what has been going on in the world of Cory. Lemme tell you, my life right now is at the intersection of Awesome and Amazing and only seems to be getting better. I am crocheting many awesome things, folding lots of awesome things, reading lots of things and watching lots of things. I recently discovered QI and have been glued to the set watching it non-stop. If you haven't seen it, it's like the cross between Jeapordy and Whose Line, and teaches you stuff while being entertained. Did you know Earth has 5 moons? I didn't!

In the yarn world, My friend has gotten around to spinning up some glorious fiber I bought and it is spectacular. I can not wait to work with it. And she still has more to do! I figured out how to make some jewelry so my Christmas gifts will be even easier to do than last year! One day I'll decide to upload my crochet stuff too maybe. I wonder if dA has a section for that.

That's all for now folks, but really, how are you doing lately?


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