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Post by OSKENÓN:TON on Jan 22, 2014 16:27:26 GMT -8
tagged: time: May 25, 12PM. speech: Oskenón:ton. notes: - - -. Little carved wooden figures and stone woven rope, chilkat blankets and woven baskets; various trinkets large and small adorned the one table among many. Unlike his neighbours to both sides, who sold neon coloured masks and queer, spiky backpacks and paintings, Oskenon:ton’s stall was made entirely of brown and beige with the occasional colour of the sea or sky thrown in. Organic forms sat among the more geometric shapes of eagles and crows and orcas, all painted in either red, black, white or all three.
Oskenon:ton whistled an old song to himself as he rearranged his wares on a small crate the were sitting on. Everything had to be put in a certain order, of course, to make it eye pleasing. The small art fare had been opened for a little while now, so quite a few people had gone through his stall, picked something up and put it back in the wrong place. With the lull of the crowd, he went back to rearranging only knowing that it’d probably be made a mess again.
It was alright. He didn’t mind.
Work was always a nice distraction. Of course, the very nature of his work meant that he didn’t always know if he had a steady income that week, or where he’d need to go. LA seemed to be quite a hub for people with interest of Native American art, though, so he made a healthy living here. He didn’t know if he wanted to stay, though. He had a couple of things left and from there, he’d have to decide whether he wanted to keep taking jobs or go to the next place.
Distracted by his thoughts only briefly, he glanced up and back into the crowd again. People were starting to come around again.
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Post by EUN-YUL MOON on Jan 24, 2014 21:03:07 GMT -8
A whole summer to do what she wanted and if there was one thing that 17-year-old girls liked, it was to abuse any amount of freedom afforded to them. And in this case it probably was less a sign of trust from her relatives to not keep close tabs on her but indifference and busy schedules. Either way, it was as good as permission for Eun-Yul to wander off on her own whims, without any real plan or destination as she explored the city in hopes of finding some sort of artistic inspiration. It did no good to get too trapped into her own mind, lest her art begin to stagnate and fester. (Not that Eun-Yul was too opposed to anything festering.)
That day she was compelled to figure out the old compass that had come into her possession (if asked she'd say she found it, because it wasn't quite a lie.) And while it certainly wasn't pointing north, it didn't look to be entirely broken since the needle was keeping some sort of fixed trajectory. Or at least until it began insisting another direction, as if it had a mind to suddenly change. Maybe it was simply busted, and Eun-Yul shook it while staring at a roadside city map to confirm its direction seemed to be entirely arbitrary.
But perhaps it wasn't too much of a loss, because following it had taken Eun-Yul into an area she hadn't come across yet in her short amount of time in LA. Maybe getting too lost would seem scary, but worries about getting back home never crossed her mind, considering she'd like to avoid it as long as possible. Not when everything in front of her seemed far more fascinating, shoving the compass into her purse as she curiously scanned the outskirts of the art fair she stumbled across. Just the sort of thing she'd been looking for, strangely enough.
Making her way through the eclectic display, some reminded the girl of the styles that had bled over into the foreigner-infested areas like Hongdae. It was easy enough to pass by most stalls, things that looked too kitsch or clearly created by people trying to make money from reproducing whatever marketable trend they could. Uninspired. She'd seen enough of flashy neons and spikes in kpop videos for a lifetime, but nestled between two such booths was something that looked far more promising in its subtlety, and she walked up to inspect some of the carved wooden figures. Carefully picking one up with assumption that it was perfectly okay to do so, she quietly admired the detail that went into it from each angle.
"You make?" she asked, giving the man the same sort of inspecting stare and at a complete loss for where he could possibly come from. He didn't look like any sort of people she'd seen before.
wow fantastic baby TAG Oskenon:ton TIMESTAMP May 25th
NOTES
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for jelly only okay |
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Post by OSKENÓN:TON on Jan 29, 2014 6:27:38 GMT -8
tagged: time: May 25, 12PM. speech: Oskenón:ton. notes: - - -. Oskenon:ton had begun to whistle an old tune that he’d learned when he was very young. A lullaby, according to his mother, about how Raven fell in love with a girl and was swallowed by a whale as a result. Perhaps not too romantic to the common mind, but it had been a story he heard many times in the past and wasn’t about to let go of. In the meanwhile, his hands seemed to move almost automatically, putting things back in their place and bringing new little items up from the boxes he kept just underneath the table. He hadn’t sold much today, which was unfortunate. Perhaps another day.
He still had the rest of the day to go, though, so he went about his work with a careful hand. Xilltsaa, the little reptile he’d found while on a morning walk and that followed him home, stayed snug and curled up in his shirt pocket. He really should have left her at home, assuming it was a female anyways, but she seemed to become quite distressed when he was out of her sight. Then again, she became panicky when anything else was within her sight as well, from Rhiannon and her thunderbird to Moose and Aura, so he better take her with him.
Oskenon:ton did glance up, however, when a girl came to his stall and picked up a small totem of Raven. It was carved of curly cherry, something he’d had quite a hard time finding, curiously enough. Xilltsaa peeked out of his pocket in curiousity, saw the strange human and decided it wasn’t worth it before curling back up in her ‘mommy’s shirt.
”Hi.” A small, informal greeting before she asked if he made it in what he could only assume was a broken English. Not from around here, then? ”Yes, I did. All of this was made by me.” |
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Post by EUN-YUL MOON on Jan 30, 2014 5:41:25 GMT -8
Regarding the collection on the table, Eun-Yul was impressed by how much he managed to produce alone. Either he had a lot of free time and this was his livelihood, or he'd been unsuccessful in selling anything for awhile. She liked to think it wasn't the latter, making her rethink her intention of just looking. The room she was sharing with Mi-Ho was painfully plain, sterile and clean and too organized and devoid of any decoration. While her cousin disallowed her to put up any posters, perhaps something small and innocuous would help give the place a bit more of a personal touch.
The skill of the craftsmanship was clear to the girl, even though she'd never done anything similar enough to fully appreciate the work that went into each figure. Probably took years of practice and perfecting technique, she wondered how many of the little creatures the man had created within his lifetime. Something about them appeared iconic, perhaps religious rather than merely decorative. Art was supposed to have meaning, but so much that was being sold these days was devoid of anything but appeal to the consumer. Probably to be thrown away in a short enough time. But this didn't seem like a cheap wood.
"Samjok-o?" she questioned curiously, although it didn't appear to have three legs to be the powerful red crow of Asian legends, was styled in a completely different way. Still, she was rather fond of stories of birds, wondering if there was any meaning to this one. "This bird, what does he do?"
wow fantastic baby TAG Oskenon:ton
TIMESTAMP May 25th
NOTES
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for jelly only okay |
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Post by OSKENÓN:TON on Jan 31, 2014 7:23:24 GMT -8
tagged: time: May 25, 12PM. speech: Oskenón:ton. notes: - - -. If she asked anything, he would be glad to help. For now, he went back to gently cleaning off the figurines and checking what he had left. One basket, one blanket and about a half dozen figurines sold since 8am this morning. Not exactly excellent, but not too bad either. Those things took a long time to make, so he supposed if they didn’t get bought, he’d have something to sell off as he was making more.
”Huh?” She said something, probably a name of sorts, but he didn’t recognize it. She still held that little figurine of Raven in her hand, though. Something to do with birds, maybe? The girl didn’t sound like she was from around the area, but then again, neither wash he. He wasn’t too far from where he came from at the moment, surprisingly enough; Haida Gwaii was just up north in Canada, after all.
”That’s Raven. He’s a rather important God, though he is a bit of a trickster.” Oskenon:ton shrugged a little, a fond smile on his face. Not too many asked about what each one did; most just found a pretty looking item they liked and were on their way. ”He does a lot of things and means different things to different peoples, but I suppose in Haida mythology, he’s the creator.”
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Post by EUN-YUL MOON on Feb 1, 2014 4:03:54 GMT -8
So it was some sort of mythological character, even if it wasn't quite the same as the one she was used to. It wasn't much of a surprise, most old religions took inspiration from the nature around them to create stories, but symbols were always interpreted differently between individuals and centuries. "Trickster?" she asked with a curious tilt of the head, not quite understanding the meaning of the word. "Like magic?"
Her eyes scanned the table for pricing on the various items. She had been given plenty of spare money by her father for the summer that she wasn't too worried about being able to afford it unless it was too unreasonable. Something so small probably wasn't out of her budget. although she probably ought to check out the rest of what he had to offer before settling impulsively on the bird. It was the first thing that stood out to her, but that didn't make it the best.
"Does she have friend?" she inquired, hoping she wasn't being too much of a nuisance while looking at the other animals. Surely some of the mythologies correlated.
wow fantastic baby TAG Oskenon:ton
TIMESTAMP May 25th
NOTES
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for jelly only okay |
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Post by OSKENÓN:TON on Feb 4, 2014 19:14:34 GMT -8
tagged: time: May 25, 12PM. speech: Oskenón:ton. notes: - - -. ”Ah… you can sort of say that. Like magic. We often call him Nankil'slas where I’m from. He’s got a lot of names to a lot of different people.” Only the ‘magic’ that the creatures preformed were often seen as mundane doings in the legends, and almost all creatures could do some sort of feat. They could all shape shift to some degree, and many of them often used magic or abnormal strengths to do what they did. Raven just happened to be very prominent in the legends he was told as a child, and was indeed popular on Haida Gwaii.
Oskenon:ton glanced down at the table again, his eyes scanning over all the little trinkets there, sitting on the woven blanket that was also made by himself. Everything down to the plastic table, and all that. Even the wooden crates that elevated some of the bigger statues were hammered together in his spare time out of drift wood and whatever he found lying around.
”Well, yes, you can say that. Raven’s a he, but I’m sure he has a lot of friends if you look into the legends. A lot of enemies, too.” He shrugged again, that small smile still on his face. ”He’s got Coyote and Whale, and a lot of people do follow him. In my culture, they say he found the first humans hiding in a clam shell and brought them berries.” Needless to say, in the Haida culture, he was considered the creator god and a rather central figure. Of course, all of that might have been too winded to explain to a passing customer. Few seemed interested these days.
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Post by EUN-YUL MOON on Feb 11, 2014 2:43:31 GMT -8
"Must be big clam," Eun-Yul nodded along seriously, "or small people. What is your people?" Listening with a rare amount of interest, Eun-Yul scanned the table for any of the other creatures the man mentioned. Finding a small figure of the whale was easy, and Eun-Yul scooped it up to hold the two carved animals next to each other with some consideration. "How can be friends?" she questioned, clearly troubled by the idea. They looked like they had nothing in common, the size and their habitats far too different to make sense that either animal would even cross paths. Almost as different as she felt from her cousin, and the girl frowned a bit sadly at the realization of how alone she really was in this country.
Maybe she could buy the set, maybe Mi-Ho would appreciate the wooden trinket. Or she would find it pointless and make a show of how little she cared, tossing it out. Eun-Yul figured that seemed more likely. "The whale too, then?" she asked, wiggling it a bit to mimic it swimming through the air. "A trickster?"
wow fantastic baby TAG Oskenon:ton TIMESTAMP
May 25th
NOTES
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for jelly only okay |
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