Cory Feder
Cory Feder is a Korean-American illustrator, animator, musician, dancer and sculptor based in New Mexico. Her multidisciplinary practice draws on the dialogue between her Korean and Jewish heritage, weaving together motifs, symbols and stories from both traditions. Her work is shaped by a profound attentiveness to nature, ritual and mythology.
For our first year of Ffern candles, we invited Cory to create four seasonal enamelled artworks set into the lid of each candle - pieces inspired by folktales and symbolic imagery. She created Eostre and the Hare for Spring 25, Summer Knight for Summer 25, Tree of Life for Autumn 25, and Selkie for Winter 26.
How would you describe your work?
I try to remember wonder from a child’s perception while also trying to carry forward various traditions from my Korean and Jewish lineages. I love to shift between various mediums in this dance, and that often includes clay paint, ceramics, paper-cuts, embroidery and coloured pencil. I am often balancing a whimsical but devotional approach.
How did you approach the artwork?
Since the size of the enamel coins is so much smaller than I’m used to, I focused on simplifying and focusing on a tactile approach. I did a lot of research on coins from various places and noted how the imagery from nature was always timeless. I wanted the ingredients from the candle to play an important part in the imagery of course and would do loose sketches on paper and tracing paper before transferring to the iPad to refine and edit with the team.
In your comic I Am Famous on CCTV, you used the Korean goblin dokkaebi as a lens to explore your time teaching in Seoul. Are there any other folklore or myths that inspire your practice?
I’m deeply enamoured by many characters from both Korean and Jewish traditions. Most often I am working with tigers, magpies, figs, mystical flames and so on. One figure I love so much is the Jade rabbit who is hammering rice cakes on the moon. I always try to look for its shape on full moon nights when the moon is at its largest. I find it to be such a bizarre and charming image.
Can you describe your favourite scent?
One of my most cherished scents is neroli. I have often joked about it smelling like ‘nature’s Pez’ as it has a nostalgic candy-like smell, but I was also first introduced to it during an herbal apothecary apprenticeship where we would work with it often. I loved drinking neroli hydrosol with sparkling water and also loved when it was the star scent of any product at the apothecary.
What is your favourite seasonal ritual?
Last year I tried out a new ritual making hoshigaki which consists of hanging persimmons to dry in a sunlit window and gently massaging the persimmons everyday to help the sugars form on the surface of the skin in a powdery texture.
The result is supposed to be a gooey, candy-like consistency. This tradition reminds me a bit of pomander (which I’d also love to do this year) as you get to enjoy a bright orange vision in the window throughout the darkest days of the year.
How does nature and working with the seasons inspire and inform your work?
I’m very lucky because I live in Northern New Mexico which is an expansive high desert with rivers and mountainous areas that get very lush. It’s a unique biome to encounter and one that is full of surprises and quick shifts in landscape.
Sometimes you’ll be driving and see a view that looks like Switzerland and then it quickly shifts to rock formations that were once under the ocean. It’s a beautiful reminder of the macro and micro qualities of time and how beauty can transcend time. This is a feeling I’m always trying to imbue into my work.
What is the best advice you could pass on?
Always expect an unexpected miracle. Never underestimate how discipline in small gestures makes a world of difference. If you have nice things, don’t pack them away and save them for a special occasion. Enjoy them and enjoy living your life through all of your senses.
Photography by Brad Trone.