The Good, The Bad, The Dokkaebi

“Dokkaebi Within: Helping the Good, Thwarting the Bad & General Mischief” Woodcut Reduction Print by Nathalie Roland for Scrabbel’s “The Good, The Bad, The Dokkaebi” Musical presentation.

Hello friends. I am so excited to share a new woodcut reduction print made for Scrabbel Dan Lee’s latest musical endeavor, “The Good, The Bad, The Dokkaebi”. The special presentation will be May 19th at 7pm as part of CAAM Fest. Watch the preview here.

After 20 plus years of friendship and creative collaborations with Dan for Scrabbel, I am filled with gratitude and enthusiasm for this latest endeavor. My work has often explored folklore, music, and monsters and this project involves all three of those favorite themes.

We began the process by having conversations about Dokkaebi, mischievous goblins in Korean folklore. We researched them and exchanged what we found interesting about them. From there I began sketching. Check out some of those sketches below.

After some exchanges about the sketches, we picked a design that included three Dokkaebi’s emerging from a record player. I was drawn to a few specifics in Dokkaebi lore. One, that Dokaaebi emerge from inanimate object and that they are associated with blue flames. Dan and I discussed the spectrum of Dokkaebi from kind helpers to punishers who often use a club or are skilled with bow and arrows. Our dokkaebi trio also features a a trumpet and a Korean drum, both instruments featured in the project.

Once we had the trio plan decided, I began a final version of the drawing on tracing paper which I transferred to the woodblock. More about Scrabbel’s Dokkaebi here.