I was at a Tourism Richmond event on Tuesday and by chance met Joseph Wu. In addition to being very well versed on Chinese cuisine and Japanese culture, he is an amazing origami artist based in Vancouver.
Joseph appears to keep pieces of paper in his pocket at all times. As the evening drew to a close, he randomly pulled out a pink piece and started fashioning something, his fingers moving neatly in precise motions.
In a matter of minutes, he had made a lovely butterfly, which he very kindly allowed me to give to the adorable 14 month old girl who had been charming all of us from the next table over.
Then it was on to a dark green piece of paper, handled with nary a fumble or a pause to remember the next fold, made into an awesome velociraptor which Mijune Pak quickly called dibs on. You would have too.
It just so happened that Joseph lives on the way I would be taking home from the event, so he and a couple of other food writers jumped into my car. Before he got out, he handed me the gorgeous blue butterfly you see above.
“To say thank you,” he said. Um, looking at how awesome the butterfly is — look at the symmetry, the curve in the wings suggesting motion, and clever use of both sides of the paper to introduce colour variation — I’m pretty much sure I’m in his debt. I have a Joseph Wu original!
Joseph’s work has all sorts of unexpected applications. Check out one such thing below.
