Tuesday, February 18, 2014

What to say about Jell-O?

February is more than half over and nothing is as far along as I thought it would be by now. Maybe there is plenty of time; probably there is just the right amount of time as the art will expand to fit the time. I am definitely feeling the pressure, though.

I've made a few more pieces for my heron, but haven't really gotten into it in that way I love to immerse. Every weekend I expect to, so maybe the next one. I did get the idea that maybe peacock feathers would make good bird eyes, so I encased a couple of them in clear gelatin. Oddly, one lost all of its color. Oops, Science. The colors on feathers are a quality of light and reflection...and the gelatin spoils that. I assume that one has gelatin that is too thick, because the other one worked okay, and the gelatin seems thinner.

I also learned that I can reduce the foam that forms in the jar if I remelt the gelatin twice, for short times, just enough to melt it but not enough to get it boiling. It settles down and relaxes and there isn't as much to throw away. Just a tiny point of interesting data collected by doing something over and over again. I'll probably quickly forget that I learned that and continue just skimming off the foam.

The Jell-O Show performers are well on their ways to having a show. Just today the narrative came together into something more or less coherent, and soon we will write the jokes and learn the songs. I wish I could tell you about it. I told a few things to my Mom and got her laughing. It sounds pretty crazy out of context.

You might remember more shows than I do. Most of the time I failed to get up front to actually see and hear the show and busied myself with selling t-shirts in the back room and missed the fun, or most of it at least. Add to that a pretty poor memory for performance and such, and that sent me on a You-tube search for Radar Angels and Jell-O Art Show videos. There are a few, some snippets and some pretty long clips. Not nearly enough of them.
I love this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vuu3ofp92Uc It really has it all. Even great harmony!

I'm so new to the show production that I'm still in awe of how it seems to magically go together. Really, of course, it is a step-by-step bunch of work done by a few people, or in some shows a lot of people, and the mystery is that they can keep doing it so wonderfully year after year.

And yeah, t-shirts. I have to make some. I'm getting an idea or two...we'll soon see! Just about a month and a week to go. Aargh. No wonder I can't sleep.



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