Where's the Jell-O?

Serving up a huge slug

Sorry I have been so lax about writing here while I give out card after card sending people here to read things...I have another blog, a more personal one, where I write much more frequently. If you are interested in other aspects of my life, go there. You never know what the subject will be: often Saturday Market or local politics, Oregon Country Fair, or some drama or other. I like to process emotions by writing and often work out what I really think or feel in the course of writing the post. Here I thought I would mostly focus on Jell-O Art, and work.

Jell-O Art is so highly concentrated in the months of January through April that sometimes I really lose my taste for it the rest of the year. I took some to OCF but as it was rainy every day I didn't even open the tubs to wear any. This week, though, I will be taking it out and putting some selected pieces to work for the annual Slug Queen Coronation at which I appear as that other Queen, the Queen of Jell-O Art.

The event is this Friday evening, August 12, and the dedicated crowd will show up ready to be delighted. Apparently we will have a canine contestant for the first time, so we are all curious to see how that plays out. He may be fairly talented, but that question with the complicated answer might not work for him. We shall see. There will also be the full range of talented and wacky-ish human contestants. This year you can even try for a chance to be a "Celebrity" Judge by putting your name in a hat. I've been one, and found it highly entertaining in a different way. I would actually prefer not to vote...I like everyone to win. But obviously we need a single Queen...except maybe we don't. A set of identical twins would be a cool wrinkle on it...they wouldn't even have to be conjoined, just confident and sufficiently confusing.

This event is one of the most pure fun ones we have here, so no wonder it has survived the Eugene Celebration, the parade, the Mayor's Art Show, the Festival of Eugene, and most of the other related Eugene celebratory notions. The Queens serve for life as Old Queens, and just won't go away. They often make new outfits for each show, get to perform if they want on their 10th and 20th year anniversaries, and show up at randomly chosen events throughout the year. They serve an important local purpose and so do I, so I will show up and do my usual service. I like to go early and help the First Lady-in-Waiting, Kim, put up the decorations and get the place ready and reserve myself some seats for me and my entourage, such as it is. I don't require a lot of minions but it's nice to have a few at the ready.

At the Jell-O Art Show, 2016

Our Radar Angel Queen #2, Markalo Parkalo (Your Queen and Mine) will end his year of glory and sing a song. I'm sad to not be in his back-up band but I have a meeting the night of the rehearsal and am too far out of the loop to get back in there. The Radars are now a fairly large group at Fair and as I have zero time there to play with them, I have to restrict my Angel stuff to the Jell-O Art Show in April, for the most part. But this Friday I get to put on some lipstick (I have to) and something smart and flouncy. And of course I will wear Jell-O on my head, because I can.

So look for me there, and we will have some fun for a few hours. I bug out early to get to bed for Market the next day, but if you want to touch my Jell-O you can. Probably you don't want to sit behind me unless you don't mind looking through layers of dried gelatin. I'm not tall but I like to keep my hat on. Those in the know come early and bring a chair, as the red ones fill up quickly. Will I make new Jell-O? I just might. None of mine really looks that spectacular to me anymore. I have just enough time if the sun comes out.

The Many-Dimensional Show

Post-coronation, 2012

Writing the show with the rest of the Radar Angels is so much fun I'm really sorry I didn't get into it sooner. I always had the roles of making Jell-O Art, making the t-shirts, and writing blog posts about it, but being crowned as the Queen opened up a whole universe of new roles to take on. That year the theme was Occupy Jell-O and I think now that the theme was made to distract me so I wouldn't find out about the year-long plan to do a Queen-for-a-Day skit and crown me. I had a broken heel and surgery in March so I didn't really address the theme too much either, except in the snippets Indi told me about as she tried to keep the secret and keep my percoceted mind busy so I wouldn't ask too many questions. I made a piece that turned out to be an artist's book made of sheets of gelatin and was the best piece I ever made so far. They did the skit, I was surprised and shocked and more delighted than a person ought to be but they probably didn't expect me to take it so seriously. Immediately, the next day, which was April Fools, I declared that the position was permanent and there would be no other Queen of Jell-O Art. Not that anyone else really wants the title, but hey. It's me and mine now.

Parts of the Jell-O Art Museum 2009

At first it just seemed like an honor bestowed for making so many sculptures over the years. There are only a couple of us who have done it from the beginning, every year. Others come and go, but loyalty is worth rewarding. Never mind that I have this sort of character flaw of never wanting to change anything substantial in my life. I looked to Queen Scarlett for inspiration on the queening duties, since she was an excellent Slug Queen and continues to be regal and generous in her social presentation. She taught me how to air kiss, which I discovered is done so that the precisely arranged hair, make-up and accessories won't be mussed. Don't get too close to a Queen. Doubly so if she is wearing Jell-O---that stuff is pokey.

My typical Tacky Food offerings made from candy molds

But she and Indi gradually let me in on a set of expectations that came rather happily to me, a deepening experience that is quite rewarding. A Queen is dedicated to her role as promoter and cheerleader, never forgetting that as the public face of an event and organization, she must be dependably present whenever opportunity arises. I resisted at first. My idea the first year was to hijack the Slug Queen Coronation in August by strutting up to claim equal status and a Celebrity Judge position. I was going to do it with a lot of hoopla and noise, and this was actually welcomed by the First Lady-in-Waiting of the Slug Queens and sounded like a good idea for awhile, but I chickened out. It didn't fit my personality to be too demanding and arrogant, and I wanted a long-term respectful relationship with that other set of Queens. I know a lot of them and they can get offended rather easily in their own roles, which are generally very socially-conscious and not as silly as you might think. Anyway, at the last minute I did ask to be a celebrity judge because it was a good opportunity to wear my costume, which I had by then developed. If my memory is correct this all happened in 2012, the year I was crowned.

The most beautiful Queen there...2012 

I did succeed in being a Celebrity Judge but got rather dissed (in my humble opinion) because I failed to introduce myself properly to the emcees that year and they didn't have a clue about me. They thought I was lobbying for that oh-so-ordinary position of Slug Queen. Oh well. I always think those things are mostly a problem of my expectations and failure to set myself up for success (i.e. be controlling enough to make myself clear in advance, or seize the moment to my advantage.) Anyway the experience was less than thrilling. Oh, did I mention that the poor RG reporter who had to cover the Jell-O Art Show the year I was crowned had to leave before it happened and so missed one of the biggest events ever in the history of Jell-O Art Shows? Once the article is in, trying to correct or add to it is old news, so I didn't get my 15 minutes that year.

Early retail Jell-O Art

Nevertheless, I reflected upon Queenliness and by January of 2013 I was ready to start going to meetings and join the performing wing. I wasn't sure I could do it, having told myself for decades that I had stage fright and could never sing in public like that. Silly me. I had to admit to myself that such a limiting view did not serve me or anyone else, and now I had a public and admirers. Some kind man at the Slug Queen thing had told me I was the most beautiful Queen there! (I know, he said that to all the Queens, but whatever.) Anyway I had something that no one else had in my dried Jell-O work, which was the flexibility to have Jell-O Art all year round and I started retailing flowers and hair ornaments that spring and summer with my regular screenprinted work at Saturday Market, Tuesday Market, OCF (after hours) and at the Jell-O Show. When I was crowned I had that broken heel so I sold off quite a bit of Jell-O at that show, lots of pity sales anyway. Selling the stuff was a big leap and I just went along with it. I made blogs and Facebook pages and set up a website and tried to get myself famous. I created as much of a buzz about Jell-O Art as I could and have tried to keep that up, as one of the duties of my regency.

Making the Jell-O Connection 2013

So, the Show. Getting in a big room with a dozen or so artists, actors, and musicians for a brainstorm is so fun the group has two or three of them to figure out a theme for the year and an outline for the performance. I took on the job of taking notes and tried to follow all the threads and help wrap them into a fabric. As it developed it became a little story about how Jell-O can turn a frog into a queen and I committed to sing a version of the Rainbow Connection dressed in a frog suit with my Queen outfit on underneath. Then I did it! I was astonished that I could indeed perform and that my sense of humor carried through in parts of the scripts and props.  That was the Jell-O Connection show, or i-jello, an exploration of the online world of Facebook, the contrast between virtual life and real life, and the joys of connecting. It was a great show (of course) and people loved us! It was illuminating to be onstage and feel the joy and fun we created reflecting back from the loving audience. I got how addicting performing can be and was quite high on that. Had a bumpy ride back to earth when I also realized it was highly insignificant outside of how it feels inside us. That might not be fair, because we can't really know the significance, which can develop over time. Anyway I had a little hissy fit the next day, tossing my wrinkled costumes and props on the floor in a pile and crying it out. Highs and lows that faded by the next year.

You really don't want to know so many things

The following year, 2014, we did Jell-O Jeopardy and that was an even bigger blast. I was getting to know all of the people who had been performing when I wasn't paying close attention (as you know, if you don't get up front you can't even really hear all the jokes and subtleties sometimes.) I saw how they created the magic from chaos. Just try to integrate zombie Marilyn Monroe, the ukelele wielding Wae Mest, and Shirley Temple (the young version) into a coherent skit. Somehow it all happens, rather of a mystery actually, and no one person has much influence on the final product. Even a Queen.

I knocked myself out on the props. In both of those shows I was determined to use my graphic skills to create a rich stage presentation so people would be more than delighted with the whole package. The Facebook year some of them didn't even get used as we scrambled to keep up. I learned that I would have to limit my visions to fit the space and structural limitations. Jeopardy went well that way, though I still made too many props. Fortunately Jacque joined us and helped with the logistics and started producing a slick and fabulous poster and images, and this year the poster is already done! I get to crib from it for the t-shirt design and that is a huge help. I don't have to wait until the last minute to get inspired about that.

Props from i-Jell-O 2013

I'm going to overdo the props again this year. I started sketching things out yesterday and it's hilarious fun for me to make big cardboard silly things and try to distill the important information graphically. I don't want a star role anyway, as the Queen is now a useful character who can come in for the deus-ex-machina when needed and riff off of any minor aspect she likes. Last year I sang a song saying that you don't want to know what is in Jell-O, which I just stole and took over from one of the musicians because it really worked for my character. She was supposed to do a commercial for Jell-O in the middle of the Jeopardy show, but she did that trickster thing, and it went off really well I thought. A little less ego last year, which made it a little more fun, too.

So of course I can't tell you about this year's show. Keeping it a surprise makes it a lot more fun and also allows us to change it as we go. Props, songs and characters will be inserted and thrown out over the next month and you don't really want to know everything. You want to be there for the moment and get the piece of magic that is yours to keep. It's only a three-hour show, a twenty-minute performance, and it won't be seen again (unless we get the recording of it back into place, which has been sadly missing somewhat. You can see a few snippets on youtube if you search Radar Angels and Jell-O.) It's the best when it's fresh and bright on the one night.

Now we are meeting weekly and everyone is writing their parodies, working up their costumes and character foibles, and we are well on the way to another great and original show. I thought since I already made a piece this year (the one I gave to MKAC) I would challenge myself to go back to the roots and make a jiggly one. Even though it has to be done at the last minute, I have to start now to get the right molds and be ready for the execution of the concept. It's a lot to do given that I will be going to Australia a couple of weeks later and of course Saturday Market opens the Saturday following the Show. Thank goodness it is not the same day as happens some years. I used to try to do both events, but clearly now that I am Queen the Jell-O  Art Show takes priority over making a living. Good thing I get that miniscule Social Security payment to cover my almost-paid-off mortgage.

I hope I never lose this joy and duty that makes my life so rich and fun. How else would I survive the dark winter fogs if I didn't have Jell-O Art? Now that I can sing more, I have a life focus that I always wanted but didn't think I could have. Way back when I used to sing in a garage band, I had two songs mainly, Sea Cruise and Love Potion #9. I won't be fronting the band this time, but I will tell you the secret info that we will be using Sea Cruise in this show. I cannot wait to sing the ooh wee baby again. It's going to be the best *three hour tour* ever. Save the date, March 28, and don't be late, because we will be there to pick you up at seven. Around seven. We have to make sure our aprons are tied in a nice bow and our Jell-O is on straight, and I guess the Slug Queen's benediction this year will be super special. The show starts at five. Come see the Jell-O, try some ridiculous Tacky Food, and watch some magical musical fun. Make some Jell-O Art too! It is a simple entry, makes you a real artist showing in a real gallery, and is way more fun than you might think. You can take my word for it.

Jell-O Art Year Begins with Joy

First time I wore Jell-O

Christmas is barely over but today I will put away the ornaments because it is time to get out the Jell-O! I'm happy to discover one last 4-pound bag of gelatin in my stash. I'll have to buy more but at least I can get started on this year's crop of whatever-it-turns out to be.

Maude Kerns Art Center just named us (the Radar Angels Jell-O Art Wing) as a Community Partner and there will be an awards ceremony on January 31 at their Annual Membership Meeting. What a great note of appreciation for our mutually beneficial and long-standing relationship. They've provided a home for our pesky one-night show for decades now.

My immediate plan is to dust off my Queen costume, always a pleasure to wear. I can go full-on with accessories and glamour, in fact will be expected to, so the next step is to make new Jell-O Art to wear on my head. I plan to make enough to make those without Jell-O Art on their heads look silly. That's right, it's always my plan to shift the paradigm and turn the world upside down like a fancy salad mold made to my design.

I didn't have a plan yet for my sculpture and was a bit tired of the same old routine. I did make a quick batch two weeks ago to use up the remnants of a bag that was in the way, and to repair a piece I wanted to wear at the Holiday Market. I was looking forward to helping to write the show and sing in it and vaguely thinking of themes and songs, but now I will ramp it all up and get into it. So much for the priority list for the winter months when we don't have Saturday Markets. Even though it is just a membership meeting there could be the opportunity for a quick song.

Piece I made for my son's wedding in 2013

I'm going to Australia a couple weeks after the Jell-O Show (which will be March 28 in 2015) and of course the following week Saturday Market opens for the season but those just took second and third place to the pursuit of my true art. I had an insight into why I love it so much. Most of my work, like the screenprinting, demands so much precision and perfection, which puts a lot of pressure on me. I'm not really a perfectionist; don't really even believe in perfection. Making things for retail means they will be looked at and evaluated one at a time, and printing doesn't really deliver perfect items each time. There are so many variables that make for flawed prints, but with Jell-O Art, that really does not matter. All Jell-O Art is free art that takes its own form and we just get to direct it a little and watch it flow. We are not really in charge, the creative flow is in charge. Just surrender to it.

Jell-O is not a cooperative art medium, not even an easy one to work with. That's the other side of the irony that the Jell-O Art Show is a completely rules-free everything-is-worthy art exhibit. No judgment is applied, no winners or losers, no "good vs. bad" type of set-up is involved in the Jell-O Art universe. Really. I personally have fought these impulses to rank myself and each other for all of the twenty-seven years of the show, and fought that inner drive to criticize and evaluate my own art. This art is all about imprecision and adapting to the medium. It's not that easy to ride that ridge and still exhibit in a real art gallery where real fine art is the expectation. Maybe that's what makes it so delicious.

Just an ordinary Saturday Market

I know I've been directing a lot of people to this site through giving out my business card so I will quickly say that I work in dried gelatin, and you are certainly free to work in the wet and jiggly kind too. You ought to start there so you get the fun of the jiggle, which is missing from the dried kind. You can start with the Jell-O brand, as it is easy to find and the colors are so seductive and iconic. Just use less water than directed. If you want to go a step further get the big box of Knox and mix some of that in. The little packets are one-fourth ounce apiece, meant to mix with one cup of water. I use the equivalent of three ounces per cup of water to make my formula for dried. Obviously I order mine in quantity from a food supplier online. Just get gelatin in the powdered form. Whatever the formula, use much less water so you will have a stiffer form to mold, carve, or whatever you decide to do with it.

You mix it in cold water because the gelatin needs to "bloom" and absorb water for a few minutes, so I do that in a canning jar and then melt it in the microwave. You can heat it on the stove of course. If you try to mix it in hot water you will have to break up a lot of stubborn lumps and I did that for years before I read an actual old recipe where they always mix in cold. I add a bit of dye because I am not going to eat mine and the food coloring assortments are too limited in color. For me the Jell-O brand is also too limited in color range, but again, suit yourself especially if you are just beginning your study.

Don't spill it, especially on yourself. Skim off the foam that forms on the top and put it in a dish to make white foam for your angelic and aquatic pieces. The stiffer it is the more quickly it hardens and scraping little dots of it off the floor, while an annual post-show ritual, is tedious. Prepare to dedicate some refrigerator room to it though freezing can change the texture. Jell-O will get moldy in a few days, but you can remelt it and lift off the top layer and save the rest. I don't make edible Jell-O or eat it, though I have been known to bring some to the Tacky Food Buffet at the show. Once you see how long it lasts in dried form you have a smaller appetite for it. It can also develop a terrible smell if you let it rot. It is made from cow hides and other offal, a fact we like to ignore, but rotten Jell-O is not a great sense memory and you could skip that part.

So let's get busy, Jell-O artists, we have work to do! I will try to post often with my tips and tricks and just email me at dianemcwho@gmail.com with your questions. This is a good place to say that I have a Facebook page called Gelatinaceae, at  Facebook page and another more personal blog at Divine Tension which I try to keep more-or-less Jell-O free but the stuff spills over this time of year. Above all, enjoy it!

My coronation as Queen of Jell-O Art at the 2012 show

You don't want to know-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

Let's see if I can post the show videos here. Jell-O Maker
Yes, singing is always better in the acoustics of one's head or bathroom, but I am proud of my efforts here. I am obviously a natural at comedy and irony and I will learn to do makeup in the mirror too.

I rewrote this song from a parody of Led Zeppelin's D'yer Maker written by Radar Angel Robert Gillespie. I never liked the group so didn't go listen to the song, dissing it. Once I heard the original I had to have it for my act. He was graceful as I mangled the verses. I left the choruses intact, and he rocked the ending. This is an all-purpose song that could easily be expanded to be more explicit, like in Robert's second verse when he actually answers the burning question. Hides and hooves, people. We will have to know. So expect to see it at the Oregon Country Fair, where the Radar Angels shimmer liquidly about spreading joy and welcome. 

I (I mean Queen McWho) had to get pulled off-stage by Vanna-T after she and Alex caught on to the fact I was trashing Jell-O and reverting to my 60's radical roots as of course any Radar Angel would likely do if they had the chance to appear on Jeopardy. We didn't need to do that, but actually I tried to write in as many moments of ordinary jeopardy in life into the script as I could. Lots of people ran with that aspect of the theme, which more than anything else reminds me how much this is art. 

It includes writing and every kind of creativity. The imagination. Love it.

I hope people caught the hammer and bell as the tools I chose to use to survive. Thanks, Pete.

During our brainstorming period one of our underlying themes was Dead People We Love. If you think about it most of our characters were those, or symbols of those, like 50's housewives, my mother's generation. Mark Roberts as Alex Smart used that in his improv, introducing the contestants as *the longest dead,* and Shirley was the newest dead person or something, it was hilarious. He hadn't done it at rehearsal. Mark hardly needs to rehearse. He could stand up and do it differently each time and it would always work. He helped write the show, and the ukelele of Mark and Nan McCloud really made the tone. I shouldn't single anyone out though, as everyone in the group brings a part of what we need. I commend everyone for keeping to the consensus process so we are all powerful.

After two or three long brainstorming sessions with the 8-12 person groups, Mark, Indi Stern and I wrote the script by taking notes of all the things everyone said at the first few meetings and trying to form them all into a coherent story. It was excellent fun, like making a collage, and we put in as many levels of humor and meaning in there as anyone could think of. Each person in the large group had to leave many of their favorite ideas tattered in the corner. We tried to fit together Jeopardy, Saturday Night Live, and brought Vanna from Wheel. There were jokes in there that weren't really even in there. We had to cut the show in half at one point. We left Bill Cosby out completely, for one. But we have time, he's still alive. That whole writing project was terrifically stretching and I will be happy to continue polishing those group skills.

Here is to all the dead people we love, who are as much a part of flowering spring as they are of cold winter. Here's to Gil, who never missed a Jell-O Show and always came resplendently dressed. Here's to Jimmy Siemens, who graced our stage in 2013 at the request of his daughter Tania, and made it a real family show with her mother Annemarie and partner Larry, and Tania's husband Jorge also in the band, and their son Noah on the stage too. Jimmy played his last and we are grateful. Here's to Roger, who often played in those ruffled sleeves, here's to Lee, who took the slides that are so very valuable. Radar Angels Christi and Charlene will always be with us. Family members far too many. So many people, not forgotten. 

Hope, my mother-in-law, memorialized in my piece that year. Both the collar of my dress and the ruffled skirt with the polka-dots came from Hope's fabric collection. I always have at least a few items from her  in use. Spring brings flowers and Jell-O, with which we honor our losses.

Death, renewal, Jell-O in the compost and jello in flight.

Filling the Dance Cards

The proper formalities have been exchanged and the raining Slug Queen will give the benediction at our Jell-O Art Show. We do this all by Facebook now instead of sending our well-dressed pages and squires and jesters, in those carriages we had to give up for lack of sufficient horsefeed. This was our recent epistolary fast-fiction (it does not seem that epistolary is commonly used as a noun, though it should be):

Esteemed Colleague,
Please consider this your official invitation to appear at the ever-loveable Jell-O Art Show on March 29, 2014. If, at around 7:00 pm, you could favor the gathered crowds and the art with your benediction, we would so appreciate it.
Thanking you in advance for the great honor of your company, I remain,
Queen McWho
Queen of Jell-O Art

 

Your radiance.
I will be there in all my finery.
The Right Royal Gastropod,
Siren of Science,
Truly Mad Genius,
Queen Professor Doctor Mildred Slugwak Dresselhaus

I do like being recognized as radiant. The Truly Mad Genius Queen Professor Doctor Mildred Slugwak Dresselhaus will be very busy this month (she always seems to be concocting something spicy) as she is holding her Gala on March 15. Find it here on Facebook. There will be a pie contest! They will be auctioned off, so some might presumably be eaten. http://oco.uoregon.edu/spice/pi-pie-contest. Of course this is a benefit and not just a ploy for her to buy more lime green accessories, so be generous with your support. By the way, you can always bring pie to the Tacky Food Buffet, and it is not required to include Jell-O as an ingredient (in fact, feel free to use actual food in your pie.)

And because I can, I will also plug the Babes With Axes Reunion concert which will be at the WOW Hall next weekend, March 8, and it will be another one of those once-in-a-lifetime chances as so many events are these days. Not many choices there, go or miss it. I made the t-shirts, so buy one while you are at it.

Save a few bucks for the Jell-O Show shirt, too, which will only be available at the Jell-O Show. It will be a cute one. I will give you an important insider hint about the show we are writing: this will be Jell-O Celebrity Jeopardy. Don't try to guess. You may know we have included portrayals of such important figures as Paula Deen and Sarah Palin in the past, so we could include anyone by the time we are finished.

5:44pm Feb 25

Behind the Scenes

This will be my second year working on the show behind the Jell-O Art Show, and it has me excited. It jiggles parts of my creativity that aren't always in play. I love to write, and have a sharp sense of humor for double-entendre, puns, and satire, not that my jokes don't fall flat a good part of the time. Writing the script is a hoot. We do it in a group, with a few of us recording the ideas and putting them in sort of an order, which is refined every time we meet. At this point in the process we meet at least weekly, probably twice, and we do email exchanges as well. It's terrifically entertaining.

Brainstorms with creative people are so surprising. It's not easy to be a person whose divergent ideas hop all over the intellectual map, but when you get a lot of us in a room together, what is "normal" changes and the atmosphere opens up. There's such a fine line connecting creativity with wackiness, and being able to bring your wackiness to the table makes it all so much fun. I'm having a blast.

The Radar Angels use costuming a lot to express the wackiness, which is what makes the act so perfect for Oregon Country Fair, another venue where the Jell-O songs go when they are not being used for Jell-O Shows. I've never performed with them there, since I have a booth and last year had a wedding and a booth, but here is a clip of what it can look like: http://vimeo.com/86730890 . I'm actually thinking of taking quick breaks from my booth to appear with the Radars this year, just dropping in for a song or two within my retail madness. We'll see about that. I used up a lot of my booth capital last year during the wedding activities, so I need to be more focused this year. That's not until July, though.

Such a huge group! We don't have quite as many for Jell-O, and that's good, because the stage is not that large. Many of the songs, however, serve for both events. We will also be performing at a benefit for LILA on March 21, at Cozmic. That's a week before the Jell-O Show, so some of it will be a sneak preview.
I myself, as a performing newbie, am pretty intimidated by the bigger public stage, but planning to work up to it. Quickly.

I am practicing my songs at home and having a blast thinking about my character(s) and how they might perform. I can tell you that the theme is Jell-O Jeopardy, so will of course include elements of the game show, which I watch every day so will easily be able to write in the little details that matter. I can also tell you that since this is Jell-O Jeopardy, the similarities will quickly diverge.

Our crowds don't hold us to anything, though, in fact, I think the Jell-O Show more than anything else celebrates divergence. It is all about revolutionary social change, from within, starting with the most mundane life activities, such as eating. I have been a Jell-O Artist from the first show in 1988. I admit I was not there when the idea generated, but knowing the generators, I always assumed it came from radical feminist politics. I don't think that was just me. We had to step out of our kitchens and kick down the last artistic barriers for women and bring all of our sisters and mothers and daughters along with us. Okay, men and boys can come, and probably need it even more than we did, but I grew up in the 1950's, when liberation of women was just gaining a little traction after millenia of trying. I saw how deadened we were supposed to be, how good. (Does it matter that I was also raised Catholic? Yes, very much so. But that is a big subject we can't get to here. You will notice it on the Tacky Food Buffet, and the pagan scheduling of April Fools/Easter/Spring.)

So there has always been an educational piece, a liberation, and a mentorship and empowerment for others. It has never just been putting on costumes and flouncing around in public. That is just one of the benefits. The shows are actually carefully written and constructed to apply a wacky finish to real social issues and real, cosmic change. There has always been an element of bringing out the angel and princess and queen in each other, and anyone who happens into our circles. We want you all to get your wings and fly higher than you dreamed.

Life is participatory, although it is difficult to engage people from these selfish, protected environments most of us construct for our personal comfort and safety. Jell-O Art as a vehicle for liberation has some essential qualities that just make it natural. It's so gorgeous and mystical as a substance, so jewel-like and perfect. The transparency and jiggle are qualities that just beg to be used. It matters some that it is both a simple and an uncooperative art material to work with. It can be a real artistic challenge to make a statement with Jell-O, but of course, in our world it matters not if you make a statement. You don't have to. You can just play with it.

Elevating it on a pedestal and calling it art is also quite revolutionary. Even after 26 years it is seldom taken seriously, or at least a tongue is planted in a cheek when the art is viewed. I personally have always fought against evaluation of the art, erecting a critical structure like other types of art, because I feel so strongly that making that level of good or bad Jell-O Art will just drive people away and miss the point completely.



I do plenty of internal evaluation of my Jell-O, and take it very seriously in terms of challenging myself with technique and execution and meaning, but I don't want any of that coming from the outside world. I don't want there to be any rejection in the world of Jell-O Art. It creeps in, of course, and some comes with my ego attached, but I really try hard to stomp on those impulses and prideful thoughts that separate artists and cause them to compete. Life is hard enough. Art should be easy to enter, easy to explore, easy to grasp from whatever place you are in, and ought to stick with you and make you think and expand your own life.

Other arts can be otherwise, but Jell-O Art is in its own category. This is an outsider category and the rules are continually discarded if possible. There are no rules. Express!

So if you do get a chance to participate in the show, I want you to know that there is a deep history and political perspective behind your fun. This is important to me, as I look at my life and see my Jell-O Art as my premier life expression. It is the place I have been able to take my inner artist and really give her the full stretch of her wings. Sure, I can make any t-shirt or tote bag or hat that I want, and I am free in so many ways in my life and my work, but Jell-O is my essence.

When I was crowned in 2012, in the surprise "Queen for a Day" skit the Angels had planned for a year, my eyes were opened to a whole new realm of the show I had sort of ignored. This reveals how fear works in the art world...I had always thought of myself as someone with stage fright, who could never perform in a public setting. I don't quite know where that came from...a lack of imagination perhaps, because I don't remember a traumatic incident or anything. I just had that sense that even though I could sing and dance well enough, I would clutch on stage and croak voicelessly to my humiliation. I was aware of the fear and kind of wanted to shed it. One time I won a prize at a Babes with Axes show and confessed that I had always wanted to be on stage with the Babes, so yay, but I never pushed to get there.

You know how those inner messages persist. Fortunately for me, Indi and the other Angels also persist, and when they got me up on stage in 2012, and I sang along with them, and babbled an acceptance speech, and cried in front of strangers and felt that pure joy, I got over myself a little. In 2013 I joined the writers and performers and they propped me up enough that I sang a song, into a mic, and I guess it sounded okay. I didn't get to see a video, and maybe I sounded awful and no one will tell me, but I'm guessing my fears are speaking there again and I was just fine. At any rate, it was such a rush! I was over the top with excitement, which was of course disturbing in its own way, but I certainly survived, didn't croak (conveniently I was in a frog costume, so it wouldn't have mattered), and had a blast.

At the same time I was singing a bit on Saturdays with the also persistent and empowering Rich, (the two of us visible at the very end of this eclectic clip advertising the uncontrollable and amazing,  SM You-Tube,) so over the last two years I have relaxed and gained a little confidence about participating in music, just as I did over the last 26 about participating in art. That is the way the arts are supposed to work, at their best.

I'm almost sixty-four years old, and despite never taking a real art class except for a month-long calligraphy class in the seventies in NYC, I have based my entire life on artistic expression. This is powerfully profound to me. I didn't sign up to get the credentials, the student debt, the critical permissions: I have always been an outsider. That was the hippie way and it worked for me. The qualification for all that is that there will not necessarily be money attached, but one of the tenets of the hippie way was that we don't put money at the top of our personal hierarchies. That particular type of power comes with so many complicated compromises.

Of course poverty is limiting in a profound way, so compromises have been made, but out of those came Saturday Market, LCFM, and OCF, and they were fruitful and important compromises to make. They have benefited millions of people. And although the Radar Angels don't make a lot of money when they perform, they do get paid and are therefore professional. I admit I have made money from Jell-O Art, not much, but I sell the shirts every year and at least break even most years. Part of the reason money is attached to parts of our expression is just for survival. Those glittery costumes are not always free (though I will always look in a free box just in case...I have a sewing machine.)

So to get to a point, I invite you to try a level of participation in the Jell-O Art Show, for whatever reason appeals to you. I discovered the "flow state" of deep artistic immersion when working on Jell-O, discovered my creative process, and declared myself as an Artist, but for you it just might be a little bit of fun in the kitchen outside your usual activities. It's a personal walk through the art world, so do it at your own pace.

I urge you to do it, though. Within the Jell-O frame or not, if there is something holding you back from true expression of your desires, your delights, your passions for change, even your political stands, I urge you to kick out the jams and add some jiggle. Try it. This is your perfect opportunity, and your Queen demands wishes for you only the best, the richest artistic life you can live. You have nothing to lose but your clean kitchen.

Jell-O can eventually be scraped off your floor and dug out of your carpet. You can throw it in the compost and walk away if you feel the tinge of failure, or take it to the show, put it on a pedestal, give it a title and see what happens. One angel's garbage is another angel's lift. We all want to sit on a cloud. Let me lend you a little puff of hot air.

  

Jell-O Birthdays

More details: the Radar Angels are working on a theme and title for the 26th Annual Jell-O Art Show, and you will hear it here first. It's like stirring up a stew, getting the creative minds together. 

Monday was my son's birthday, so I celebrated by making Jell-O Art. I made my mom, Rita, a present for her 88th birthday, an experiment in mailing...I put a gelatin flower in a glass jar, packed it up, and we'll see how strong it is. I might have to repair it a bit next time I go. Jell-O Art maintenance is part of the art. Dusting, at minimum, so that's why the glass jar. I've been doing that recently, making it lower maintenance and maybe longer-lasting. 

I had the flower left over from the wedding; there were four of them, burgundy and purple, and they were quite nice, so I'm happy to be finding uses for them. I think she needed a new piece, as she has one of the first I made, years and years ago.

In the realm of technique, I forgot to tell people what to do if you forget to pry your drying gelatin out of the pan before it gets stuck. Simply moisten until it is pliable enough to unstick. I put a little water in there, swirl it around, and let it sit for 5-15 minutes. You can also try melting it in the microwave, only about 15 seconds or so should do it. Some of the pieces I had to rehydrate became delightfully stretchy, so should end up in some new shapes.

And the reason I order my pure gelatin online and don't use the packaged types, is that I use a lot of it. The bag in the photo holds about 4 pounds. You can certainly start with the Knox big boxes and tear open those envelopes. I did that for years. It's convenient, and if you are making edible or jiggly for the show you might just want to use it to thicken the Jell-O or Royal brand (and I always buy the Royal so it will continue to get shelf space.) Don't get too ambitious too soon, either, because moldy Jell-O smells terrible.

These big foot-square pieces of bluish grey are for the life-size heron I'm building. 

I used some net as a carrier and will moisten it when I make the shapes I want. It could go over the back to support wings. I'll need lots of layers so I just make a lot of large pieces, using the lids of plastic tubs or even plastic wrap on a table to pour out thin layers. It can be uneven. I think that is what causes some of the interesting distortions while drying.

 One great aspect of fabric backing is that you can sew it, or sew things to it. Accessories like as wings can be heavy.

 Okay! I'll keep you posted. Keep thinking about what  will be funny in this April Fool's Day. On March 29, to be exact.

Put a Jell-O Out Tonight! (1970)

People may not realize how often I quote Jell-O slogans. Over the one-hundred years plus of Jell-O brand, there have been many, and they are quite useful for laughs and inspiration for art. Even though there are months until the show (March 29, 2014!) you can start to play around with your medium, and that is on my list for today.

I mix my gelatin in a quart canning jar, filling it half full with COLD water. Room temp is fine, but don't make the mistake of using hot water, which I did for years and years, as it gets quite lumpy. The gelatin needs to bloom in the cold water (absorb water, basically) and after some minutes, five or ten, you can melt it. My current recipe is 6 ounces of dry gelatin powder for the 2 cups of water. That is really strong, and you can use less, so if you are using the Knox envelopes, start with making it about four times the box recipe, and experiment from there. The amount depends on the end use.

 I melt it in the microwave, but you could do it in a water bath or make the stuff in a saucepan if you like. Two minutes in the microwave should be more than enough, or one more, but then let it settle a little and it will get more clear. Skim off the foam and spread it on a plastic lid or dish for later use as seafoam or slime or throw it away, if you want. Divide the rest into smaller jars with dye, or get right into the big batch.

I vastly prefer making dried gelatin so that it lasts and I can do more with it over a longer stretch of time. It loses the jiggle, but you can add dye to make it any color you want, and the dried has a lot to recommend it. My next favorite method is using molds, and you can use most anything for a gelatin mold. I collect plastic items, especially if they have interesting textures or suggestive shapes (did you ever notice how the blister pack for light bulbs are boob-like?) but you can use anything you can get the gelatin out of. It gets pretty hard to move as it dries, sticking to the surface with great strength, so flexibility helps.

Decorative chain by David Gibbs

I generally pour the colored goo in thin layers (less than an eighth inch) in glass pie plates, etc., but be warned that it can pull chips of glass right off if it gets super dried, so you will not want to use the same dishes for food. Find a level spot for it to sit for a few minutes, and it will harden at room temp, so no need to juggle those dishes into your fridge. After a few hours of drying in a warm spot (on top of the piano for me) you can peel off the sheet, tear it up, and flip the pieces to dry further. It can take a couple of days or only one, depending on thickness.

You will want to play with the pieces to shape them and explore the stages it goes through, some flexible and even stretchy. You can re-hydrate it at any point, remelt it, start over, but it does get moldy if you make it too thick, don't flip it enough, or forget about it. You can pry it out of the molds intact if you do it at the right time, but small parts might break off. No problem: liquid gelatin makes a great glue (this is where the term glue factory comes in...) to stick the pieces back together, and this is how you make sculptures of various pieces. You have to prop them up or hold them together for a minute, and you can maybe break them apart later, but the glue is reliable for the most part. A one-ingredient art form!

By "unknown artist"

Message me, at dianemcwho@gmail.com, or on Facebook (I have a Gelatinaceae page as well as my own, Diane McWhorter) if you have more questions, but I will continue to go over some of these details again, as we all form our concepts and our art pieces. You will bring a piece to the show this year, right? I guarantee it will be a good one, the show that is, but your piece as well. Because, and you may not believe this at first, there is no bad Jell-O Art. There isn't a critical or evaluative structure for Jell-O Art, and you can believe we will not reject any pieces from our show, even if they look like a nude woman on a plate or include bullets. (I made a Jell-O AK-47 once, and there have been lots of boobs and derrieres.) We are Artists in the true mold!

Make art, and you are an artist. All the better if it is imbued with meaning and has scientific import, but the main concept we promote is FUN. Make some fun (1979). The quickest way to find a smile (1987.) Don't say no, say Jell-O (1975.) If you want to find more slogans, there is a great book called Jell-O: A Biography, written by Carolyn Wyman, that you can probably find somewhere. I just pulled out my copy, and the glossy surface is kind of flaking off a little, because maybe I spilled some gelatin on it. Or maybe, just possibly, Carolyn covered her book cover in gelatin. No, probably not, I suppose I spilled.

Violet, about 10 inches across

Oh, and if you want to do a favor for your Queen, I have dropped off the google pages for Jell-O Art, gelatin art, Jell-O artists, images, etc. I could barely find myself, and my Mom is telling people to look me up, so if you have some time, google around and click on me and my pieces, or David Gibbs' pieces, or anything but those gorgeous edible flower things or the moldy San Francisco. Usage is the same as importance online, so use me and get me back up into the popular zones. You will find amazing things out there, but you will probably find that Eugene's Jell-O Art is the longest running, the most advanced, and the very best Jell-O Art in the history of the world. We're in the book. We're up to something good (1985).

The Season of Jell-O Art

It's time to start back into Jelloland. I cleaned my workspace (the kitchen table) and started thinking about my piece for this year, and the emails have begun to circulate to get the group together. It is never the same two years in a row, and this will be the 26th show, with many new people involved. For the performers, the OCF is also part of the process, since the performances often merge at least slightly and the songs are sometimes almost the same.

For my art piece, I plan to work on the Great Blue Heron I started before the wedding last year, thinking I would make it a feature of the arch for the wedding couple and something fun to carry in their procession, but it was just as well that I abandoned the project because I don't think it would have ended up fitting into the real wedding as it took place. Many ideas were abandoned as logistics took over, and that is the way with the Jell-O Show too. Last year I was very ambitious and quite a few of the projects I started didn't make the show.

However, I am used to art and creativity going in many directions at once. It seems to take all of my skills put together to get any final results that are satisfying on lots of levels, and that is the richness of the process. When I was thinking to make steampunk things for the wedding, I went through all of the stuff in my stuff library (I collect all manner of odd objects and decorative elements for my many media: paper, gelatin, fabric, paint, ink, dye, and found-object sculpture, as well as other things like rusty metal.) I took some of it inside to look through as I made the hat ornaments, though I ended up using very little of it. Had to re-sort it and take it back out to my studio to re-file in my organizing system out there, but that is all part of the creative process for me.

I'm a visual learner, and have to see things spread out in front of me to get my ideas to coalesce. It looks like a mess to other people and undeniably takes up space. I resist putting up tables in my small spaces but sooner or later I do that, and then there is no more room for people or other tasks of daily life. For the first couple of weeks of the year I just sort things, put them away, and try to create space. This also helps me remember what I have and what projects I might have abandoned and forgotten.



When it comes to the actual making of Jell-O Art, the dried type I do takes a lot of lead time as the drying process takes a few days for each batch, so I will need to see what I made of the blue-gray pieces for the heron and what I may still need, and make a bunch of it. It's important to have a lot, as once I start to stick it together, it gets a lot smaller, and I am thinking of a life-size bird. My first plan is to make it look like it is taking off from a pool of liquid or slightly jelled jiggly stuff, so some of that will have to be last-minute in construction. Whatever I do will take a lot of planning, and being in the performance also means that I will not have a lot of time near the end, since we will be rehearsing and making props, etc., as well as distributing posters, getting interviewed on the radio, and all of the Queenly things I am supposed to do in my role.



I think whatever I am willing to do will be open to me, and greatly appreciated as well. The show is a fundraiser for the Maude Kerns Art Center, so we'll do some promoting coordination too. Last year I had a wonderful video opportunity which is still viewable at KEZI: http://www.kezi.com/turning-jell-o-into-art/ and I'm guessing that will not happen again in the same way, though I suppose if I can think of some way to put a new twist on it, I could get some coverage. Sean Cuellar was a great interviewer, did all the video herself, too, and she was very easy to work with.


There is also the Slug Queen connection. We always ask the Slug Queen to give a benediction at the start of the show, and each one brings her particular charms. Last year Queen Sadie knit some Jell-O, which was stupendous and didn't look nearly as amazing as it was in process, because Jell-O Art is subtle in it's presentation to those who haven't tried to work with it. This year the Slug Queen is an actual Scientist and Educator, not that all Queens and commoners don't have such talents, just not as much notice of them, but anyway, the possibilities are intriguing. She could do some spectacular demonstrations perhaps. If she gets all the attention I suppose I can live with it. I have been monopolizing as much attention as I could get for the last two years but this year I plan to fade into the background. Good thing the background is multicolored and full of pattern-mixing, like camo and tie-dye, so I will fit in.

In case you are new to the scene, try making some Jell-O soon and seeing what you can think of to do that will be fun for you. Some of the secrets include using the clear gelatin such as Knox, as it is more economical than the sugary edible chemicals that are Jell-O brand, and make it stronger than the package directions. I make mine anywhere from 4X to 12X the suggested ratio of gelatin to water. It will harden at room temp and you can add dye or food coloring or whatever you like (glitter, plant materials, Barbie doll heads) to make your meaningful art statement.

It has to be fun, that is the real only rule. I am allowed to be serious about it, and so are you, but only if being serious about your art includes enjoying it. How you can resist enjoying Jell-O Art, I do not know, but all of that is up to you.



 

Jell-O Master

I'm famous again! I really like this interview by Sean Cuellar. She went all out to get great shots, and edited it down to something quite coherent! 

http://www.kezi.com/turning-jell-o-into-art/.

Too busy to say much more right now...dress rehearsal tonight, and then on with the Show!

i-Jell-o

Your Jell-O Art Queen is thrilled to report that we have a theme!  i-Jell-o

 
We even have a slogan: From the Me Generation to the iGeneration.

Think about it, everyone is tuning out from violence and global climate change and wiring into themselves with their iDevices.... Instead of more human connection, which is one of the only known ways to successfully transcend hatred and violence, we have an entire generation tuned into iThings.

Perhaps they are even hooked into the chemical slush that passes for food these days: extruded chemical blends that have a pleasing enough mouth feel to go down easy and the right secret sauce. DON'T YOU KNOW THAT STUFF IS KILLING YOU?

Okay, no one wants to hear another rant on the way those late icons Twinkies and Ding Dongs used to be real cake and how good they used to taste. Jell-O, in contrast, has always been made from calf hooves and other offal (mostly hides, apparently.)  It has never been food in a classic sense of something grown and gathered. It is made from a process. So we will be exploring process.

And in the process something is lost. Imagine if someone, say a Radar Angel, came back after say, twenty-five years, imagine how shocked and appalled they might be at the temperature change, the near end of the world, the death of the iconic Hostess Cakes, and the way the modern young person seems to be wired up to a silent transmitter while hooked up to a silent killer that passes for food. 

It's Too Darn Hot! People are slurping down melted Jell-O, with vodka, no less, and because it is easy, they don't even notice they have stopped eating food. The Radar Angels and Jell-O Art to the rescue!

Your Queen will stop here with the fantasy scenario of what backstory lies behind the theme, because like all good Jell-O Show themes, this one was chosen from a brilliant brainstorm of dozens of great ideas and connections, and it is open to your interpretation. You are the artist, remember that. I expect a grand range of interpretation that far surpasses even my ridiculous imagination.

The actual show and performance may diverge wildly from the said theme  by the time March 30 2013 rolls around. I'm not even one of the people who usually takes the theme from concept to comedy but this year I got to take notes at the brainstorm and it was really, really hot. People just stripped down to their wings and their Wonder Bread wrapper underwear and we didn't even have time to finish the wine and hummus.

Since there are people working on performance now, all you have to worry about is making your Jell-O, and of course bringing it to the show. You are free to interpret the theme in any fashion that appeals to you, or to totally ignore it and bring the Jell-O you had planned, or the result of your plans if they go a bit south.

I myself had something totally unrelated in mind, but the way my mind works is dependable, and I already found a little angle from the theme to my piece. That little dotted vowel is so pervasive in life that it has a plethora of facets worth mining and metaphors worth mixing.

So go out there and buy your gelatin (you can actually find non-Kraft gelatin out there to bolster up your iScore in the iCompetition toward iPurity of iNtention). 

This is going to get old quickly, isn't it? Keep it fresh for me, won't you?

In other Jell-O art news, I took a plastic box full of fascinators back East for party wear (my Mom looked utterly stunning in one) and on the way back my suitcase got hijacked for underplane storage when I had planned to carry it. 

I totally forgot my priceless Jell-O Art in its vulnerable top pocket, and sure enough, the plastic tote didn't hold up. At first it looked like every piece was smashed, but when I got over my hearbreak enough to fix them, I discovered that while nearly every piece had lost a petal or a leaf, they had broken at the joined parts. Within a few minutes, all were good as new! That stuff is strong. 

Structural, even. So that works into my idea, which may or may not involve walls, and my other idea is knitted Jell-O. Yo, Sadie! Let's see if it can be done.  The iWorld needs iSalvation. Or iSalivation. Or iSomething. You work on it. I have to start covering my kitchen with newspaper and filling all my furniture with piles of gelatin projects. It's Open Season on Jell-O!

Wait, we're trying not to use violent language. The non-competitive joyfest that is the Jell-O art peak season has opened for all!                         U-Jell-O too.