Video: Arnold Drake World

.

Magic from the mundane – paper towels flourish in the hands of a coffeeshop artist.

Arnold Drake World works some beguilingly simple magic at a communal table in a bookstore café in Portland, Oregon, masterfully folding paper hand towels into ‘botanically correct flowers’. It is a distinctive craft he’s perfected through thousands of iterations over some eight years and, though he’s full of playfulness, he takes every step in the process very seriously, from finding just the right papers towels, to making the precise creases, to aiming to impress with each completed creation. With a touch as light and deft as Arnold’s, the US director Riley Hooper offers a tiny, breezy portrait perfectly exuding the joy and exuberance of its subject.

Email subscribers may click on the title of this post to watch the video.

This post first appeared in Aeon.

Directed by Riley Hooper / Co-Directed by Mo Scarpelli
Shot + edited by Riley Hooper
Additional editing by Mo Scarpelli
Music by Poddington Bear

See Riley’s work: rileymakesdocs.com/
See Mo’s work: moscarpelli.com

.