Kori's Making Things

 I'm obsessed with the song " Burn " by k-pop artist KEY (Kim Kibum.)  I've spent hours listening to it and picking apart the things I enjoy about it: the techniques and the layering, the mixing and the vocal choices.  Naturally, I hoped to one day make a zine that communicated my feelings about the song, because zines are how I communicate. Even though I always have lots of ideas for what I want to make zines about, I won't make those zines until the right format for it finds me.  And in the fall of 2024, it was the work of two of my book production students that inspired me to finally construct a zine to talk about Burn. After talking to one student about expressing music in comics, and reviewing the work of another student who had made a fold-out zine in a new format that revealed things in different sequences, I decided I wanted to make a zine that unfolded in a way to reveal the song in the direction it felt like the song was going.  I started by listening ...

 Pride month!  It's June, the world is bursting with color and flowers and creatures (at least here in Maine) and I was struck with the urge to PAINT!!!  I had wanted to make KEY fashion zine for years, but never could quite figure out what approach I wanted to take.  The colorful world inspired me: make a rainbow. I had been itching to use my restocked gouache to paint for months, and wanted to use this an an exercise in drawing directly with paint: no sketches or pencils, just build form with color.  It ended up being challenging to abandon line-based drawing but was so fun and exciting, I painted for four solid days to finish it.  It was a cool process, so here's how it progressed. I started by poring over reference images and calculating the size and shape of the thing.  Always trying to be frugal, I aimed for a standard paper size and landed on 18 inches wide, then figured out how I would divide that up into eight panels- not the standard spectrum...

  One of my “refuse to monetize” hobbies is resin pouring. Lately I’ve been having fun expressing my kpop fandom through charms reminiscent of the decorated cases that people make for idol photocards. Key, a member of the Kpop group SHINee, is a favorite icon of mine because of his integration of fashion, dance, music, and theme in ways that are simply…deeply to my taste. Anyway, I’ve been pouring resin charms styled around Key’s iconic outfits from his GASOLINE music video. I’m using molds by CindyJJang (link to etsy shop) for the cameo and the diamond charms (the icon of SHINee.) I’ve been using custom stickers I printed last year and whatever baubles I could find around my studio (like the disassembled gold bead earrings above.) I have a couple more in the works, but it’s been a fun project…just for me!!!