It's Jell-O Time!

Oh, gosh, I am having such a hard time getting the World of Jell-O Art launched this year. I got out the pieces and made some more pieces and made a few flowers 
 for gifts and such, but I have had no luck getting into my piece. I gifted myself this big bell jar 

 





and have a few ideas of what I want to do, but I am making very little progress. All of this protecting human rights and calling out liars is taking up a lot of time. At least I did make a hat. It isn't quite finished but it will be fun to wear as part of my costume. I mostly do things to see if I can and this one was a fun challenge. I used the plastic sleeve from a bag of potatoes as I thought it would expand and stretch well but it mostly contracted and shrank, so it was fun to have some technical problems to deal with. For things like this I use a rim of romex electrical cable...it stays stiff but can also be shaped to fit your head, and I sewed the plastic mesh to it around the bottom after it was covered with the gelatin. Then I made a hat to go inside it out of one I had around, because dried gelatin is scratchy and hard and not comfy to wear like that anyway. I try to make the headpieces comfortable by the way I attach the bands and mostly succeed with that. But you can happily deal with your own technical challenges, as that is definitely part of the fun.

 Yes, we are working on the show, and the theme, 
Fool's Jell-O, is one I am falling in love with. Everybody is a fool, and that is all I can tell you about our secret show. We keep it a secret for fun, and of course to hide the fact that it isn't ready until it's ready, and it's nowhere near that yet. We know what songs we're using, and the rough outline, but I have a lot of decisions to make about my character and what she will say and do. I kind of know what she will wear, but the bigger question is how many outfits I will try to put together. The trick for us, the Radar Angels, is that we have historically had a finger right up the zeitgeist and it makes for some really rich comedy and high amusement. This year will be no different with our fingers pointed everywhere and most of all, at ourselves. Because what could be more foolish than spending the better part of two months producing a silly show that lasts for twenty minutes of a three-hour event that somehow takes up at least a week? I doubt there IS anything more foolish. Of course, as you know, a fool is not as simple as she appears. So look out, zeitgeist.

Since I spend almost the whole day at the Gallery, I can't go to Opening Day of the Saturday Market, which makes me sad, but as Queen Gelatinaceae of the Jell-O Art Realm, I have a bigger responsibility to my art and my public than I do to actually making a living. Apparently. But this year, anything that makes me a greater fool is part of the plan. I do encourage all of you to play up this April Fool's Day opportunity as much as you possibly can. Dress up!

We all need some levity! We need a lot of it. I do find my best self in art and creating, so I'm here to encourage you to get started. It's already March! There will be many distractions, not to mention marches, so we will have to try to keep a focus on what's really important, and that is Jell-O. 

So quickly, what I make is dried Jell-O, or actually generic gelatin that I mix up really thick and dry out in really thin pieces. I then glue it together into flowers and other items with the molten gelatin as glue, so it's very simple in concept and as complicated as you want to make it in execution. I put in a little dye but you can color yours with practically anything you like. 

By thick I mean like 6-12 times the recommended amount of gelatin to water. In other words, cut the water in the directions to a fourth or less. I put mine in a quart canning

jar, filling it half full of cold water and stirring in 6 ounces of gelatin. You don't have to make yours so stiff, because I am guessing you don't buy your gelatin in 5-pound bags as I do. 

You dissolve the powder in the cold water and let it bloom for awhile, say 15 minutes, and then melt it, in the microwave or on the stovetop. It then clarifies as it cools a little and you can skim off the foam (maybe drying it for your art) and pour the melted gelatin into dishes or molds or whatever suits your plan. I use glass pie plates that I have dedicated for the purpose because the dried gelatin can actually pull chips right out of the pyrex so you can't use them for food again. It is really tough stuff.

I make it really thin in the molds, like less than an eighth of an inch. For it to dry before it gets mildewed, it can't take more than a day or two. After about eight hours or so you can peel or pry it out of the dishes, flip it over to dry the other side, and tear it or cut it or stretch it or otherwise manipulate it in whatever ways you like. It's quite fun and if you don't like what you made, rehydrate it and you can start over. That also works if you can't get it out of the pans...get it wet and wait a little and it will be flexible again. Tend it carefully and if it does start to get moldy, you can try brushing it with bleach or melt it and start over, and there is always the compost pile when you give it up. Rats eat it happily, probably possums and raccoons will even eat it. (Raccoons might be too picky, since it is only technically carrion and hard to wash off.)

But if you want the  famous jiggle you can't make dried...you have to make wet and that you have to do closer to the show. It will keep in the fridge for some time but you might want to make a practice piece and then remelt it or start over. If you like to use the Jell-O brand, go for it, but it has too many chemicals and sugars in it for me, and attracts ants, so I don't use it unless I am making edible things. And of course I don't recommend eating it though I admit I took this to a Thanksgiving dinner and we all ate it. It tasted great too.

Molds are the easiest way to get the shapes you want and plastic that is slightly flexible is probably the easiest thing to use as a mold, but I have tried many many things and generally they work within their limits. Jell-O is not a particularly cooperative medium, so try to remember how much fun you are having and don't get discouraged.

For some reason I can't comment on my own blog so don't expect a response if you comment here, but you can contact me on Facebook or by my email, dmcwho@efn.org as soon as I wrest it away from the phishers that conned me last night. This Fool stuff is for real, and I am susceptible. Very. 

If you aren't, take a risk and let yourself play the fool in some new ways this month. I'll try to post often, and keep a presence on my Facebook art page, Gelatinaceae, and we do have an event page as well. And, if you're curious, I have another blog, Divine Tension, where I really play the fool. Repeatedly.

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.

Jell-O Art Show Review

My piece

It's hard to explain just how satisfying the Jell-O Art Show is for me. It's the beginning of my art year, and I work on it for a full three months, the offseason of my retail Saturday Market experience, with them both opening at the same time, April Fool's (roughly). It's sad when it's exactly the same day, because Jell-O takes precedence, so I miss out on the equally exciting Opening Day, but there will be 32 other Saturdays and only one Jell-O Art Show. A lot is packed into that day.

Jell-O Go Boom! by Radar Active

David's corner

Making something from nothing is probably the activity that gives my life the most meaning. Just the art alone, trying to interpret the theme or explore some technique gives me pleasure. Since my coronation, I have also loaded myself up with royal duties such as greeting each artist, showing interest in their piece, and taking their photo with it whenever possible. Since I have no staff this can get hard, but for the hour and a half pre-show I try to greet everyone. Many return each year but we always have some very interesting artists who are showing for the first time. Sometimes they take it seriously, but sometimes they are into the silliness, and often they take the opportunity to make an environmental or political statement. Many do it for time with their kids, to encourage a lightheartedness about art-making. Many drag their kids along and I always try to engage with them so they get how easy it is to enter. Whenever anyone tries to talk about "winners" or "Best of Show" I try to quickly remind them that there is no good or bad Jell-O Art, and that the art and the artists must be taken on their own terms. There is no critical structure, just participation. And the audience is an important part of that, of course, so I try to be as appreciative and generous with the patrons as I can be.

Jell-O Experts

Trying to make all the performing parts happen on time is hard and I do have to engineer my own costume changes and all that too. I even wear make-up, as much as I hate it. Glamour takes work. Again, though, the audience makes this satisfying. I took a photo of them when I got on stage, to remind myself that there is a symmetry between them and what happens on stage. We make something out of nothing up there, but without the willing participation of the fans, there wouldn't be much point in it. I go through a little sadness each year, as it seems like such a huge, explosively creative endeavor, yet none of my family and few of my friends (outside the Jell-O circle) have any idea it is even going on, much less how much effort is going into it. That's just life though, all of the huge things we each do and think are important, that get little general notice in the clamor of messy public life. Oh well. I can live with the ephemeral nature of it all. That's part of the charm of Jell-O. There isn't much substance, it's mostly glamour, but there's a vast lot of metaphor in there, and authenticity, at least when we get finished with it.

Mobile by Ren and Joanna

Not Tacky at all

There were two big hits in the show, this mobile by Ren and Joanna, and the Christmas Corner by David Gibbs. Ren and Joanna, Radar Angels, entered their dried gelatin for the first time and really landed on the art side of the equation, and said they'll be back. Even though they had a price tag on their piece, they were glad to get to keep it. Joanna also dressed most appropriately and brought this awe-inspiring and hardly Tacky Food. The table was quite loaded. I ate a few olives from Holly's dish but did not try the Unicorn Poop. I did eat a slice of the gorgeous blueberry Vegan Wave which was made from agar-agar, but I was too nervous to eat much before the performance.

David was knighted for his 20th year of participation and several of his photos showed previous pieces. He claims to already have an idea for his next year's piece. Julie and Doug and their friends (names forgotten, sorry) came back after a year off and dressed the whole family as usual. Maile was our youngest (perhaps) with this great piece and Marion may have been our oldest with her miniature explorations. She had a blast taking lots of photos. She said last year the Jell-O was not exciting so I hope she liked it more this year. Apparently she used cabbage leaves to make at least one of her teensy pieces.

Angela may have come the farthest (from Seattle) and Annemarie brought a piece that she made for the performance last year, sliced, and dried in the food dryer...that was a new technique. The layers made a frilly hat that I wish I had gotten a close-up of too.

Might have to write another to include more of what was great. Might be another year when Jell-O Art just doesn't stop. 

The Best Tsunami Ever

I think that's what I'm naming my piece. I might think of something more serious that better fits the simplicity and elegance of the sculpture though. Today I took it outside and fussed with it a little, but it was really finished so I simply dusted it off and put it in a tub to take to the pr
e-show tomorrow night. We have dress and tech rehearsal so I'll use the opportunity to get my carload of stuff over to the gallery. Besides the sculpture I have a big tub full of fascinators, a box of props, a pile of hats and wearable Jell-O for my characters in the stage show, a table, tablecloths, and a bunch of things like tape, hammer and nails, and display pieces for my Jell-O to sit on. It's a big pile, so I wanted to get it all organized today.

This great hot weather was perfect for drying Jell-O outside (and laundry too) so I made three little roses on sticks just to round out my offerings in case people want to buy things but not wear them. I still love the shirts which is a good sign. Often I'm disappointed in them and sometimes they don't sell, but I think the laughing Einstein will be a winner. People might not recognize the image of the gravitational waves but they soon will. This interpretation is pretty far from the ones I found online, but all the nerds will get it. Most Jell-O artists have nerdy tendencies. Most Eugenians have nerdy tendencies for that matter.

A couple of people had technical questions about the dried gelatin this year (including someone eating lunch outside the Kiva today when I put up a poster) so I thought I'd take this opportunity to write about my piece instead of waiting for Sunday. Thinking to explore the liquid properties, I poured my gelatin out on big tub lids and let it flow around, tipping and shaking the lid to see what the molten goo would do. When it stopped moving I let it dry on top, then peeled it off, flipped it, and laid it over some glass jugs and jars I put on their sides atop the entertainment center. That let it sag and curve and I made about ten pieces of various watery colors like that. Some curled more than others, and some I curled on purpose. Then when I thought I had enough I simply stacked them up and made them look like waves lapping over each other kind of like the surf does when it runs up the last stretch of beach before it all sinks into the sand or back down into the sea. One trick I used was to get pieces of it wet, usually by brushing it with a bit of water, to bend it and shape it when it would crack if I tried to do it dry. This takes restraint, as it will certainly fall apart and melt and stick to everything, including your fingers, but I'm careful and usually get the results I want. I still enjoy it when it does something on its own without my help. Randomness in art is very appealing to me.

My wave isn't completely realistic, of course, but it all fit together quite naturally and I barely modified anything. I glued it together between the layers in a few spots but mostly just let it sit, feeling like it might not be a permanent piece so it didn't matter to me if it stayed together in any particular way. I'm really running out of space to store this stuff so I have to start recycling it into other pieces or letting it go to the compost pile. I'm a bit less attached to some of it as I age. Some of the earlier stuff looks quite crude in technique and hardly worth dusting off, and really, I say it should go into the Smithsonian but the chances of that are pretty darn slim and meanwhile I could use my project room for actual projects. As I learned from my one year of trying to be a famous Jell-O artist, it takes rather constant promotion to keep oneself up in the googleverse and trying to get into a museum would involve much more serious promotion than I am willing to do. Everything takes time, and I'd much rather spend more time out in nature than on the internet or writing letters and making phone calls.

We'll see how much of my collection I do let go, but you never know. People change. I don't really want to continue to accumulate worthless stuff, making a nasty chore for someone if I leave unexpectedly. My Mom set such a good example recently of selling her house and almost all of her stuff, and hers was actually worth something, so there was a reward in selling it. Mine will merely involve a large dumpster or several trips to the dump, plus a giant free pile. Maybe it would be fun to put some of the Jell-O outside in a rainstorm and watch it turn back into mush and get eaten by slugs. Might get the chance on Sunday.

Sunday my plan is to do as close to nothing as possible, though. I know I'll be exhausted. It's hard to explain how much work is involved in producing this event, which is literally the focus of three months of my life. From helping write and stage and practice the performance to putting up posters and sending out PSAs, we all participate and do as much as we have time for to make it happen. I'm skipping Opening Day of Saturday Market for it, kind of a blow to my income for the month but if the shirts sell that will help make up for that. I'll miss my Market people but there will be another Saturday right around the corner. This year we have some excellent musicians working with us, so the musicianship is a few steps up from amateur. It's not all the way to professional, with the exception of a very few, but they have pushed us into some pretty fine shapes. I think you'll really get a kick out of this show. We won't hurt anyone's feelings, it's all fun and games, and it's uplifting without any kind of moral message whatsoever. Just ridiculousness. Simple hilarity. Joyous cleverness. Harmony, beauty, and one bit of smelly history that will only amuse. You know you want to be there. There won't be a repeat performance...it's just once. Twenty-some minutes, and then it will be Jell-O Show history.

And this year we get a double hit of the Slug Queen, Markalo Parkalo, Your Queen and Mine. That will likely not happen again. There is one surprise I can not even give a hint about, plus I invited the Mayor. I'm guessing she'll come, though I told her if she got the chance to take a vacation instead, she should.

It's the day after tomorrow!! I'm all full of anxiety and excitement and trying to remind myself to savor it and enjoy the heck out of every moment. You should too. On April 3rd, it will all be memories. And leftovers.

Shirts! And Stuff.

We will have t-shirts. It was super hard this year, because I keep forgetting how old I am and how hard screenprinting is getting. I got too ambitious. This is a three-color waterbase, and it is wide, way wide. I don't even have a squeegee wide enough anymore. Printing waterbase has to go quickly, because the ink dries in the screens, so I knocked myself out but I did make it through and turned the screens upside down for a few tote bags too. I was worried about the black printing over the colors but I used the flash to dry them and all four platens so I got great results with that. I guess my main problem was that I had to use my poor body in ways it has not been used for several months, and it wasn't happy about it. Guess I'll go back to printing one and two color only and stop trying to make pearls to set on the table for cheap.

You can only get these shirts at the show, and they are traditionally only ten bucks because it makes no sense to have a bunch left over. I don't mind giving some away, except that I worked so hard I don't think I should. I think I'll give out some half-price coupons maybe. Really ten dollars is a ridiculous price for a shirt of any kind, much less one like this, so maybe I'll just grin when people ask about shirts for free. I thought about saying, "Do you know how insulting that is?" but that would just be mean. I'm the one who gave so many away that people got the idea that they should get one for free.

So that's done, and all the props are done too. I didn't make many this year, and had help with those. Jacque made the cool horses and Annemarie made a bunch of bright surfboards and other accessories that will look fantastic on stage. We are bringing some palm trees out of storage. Mostly we won't have many props because the stage is so full of people. That's fine with me. I still haven't gotten my taxes done, so there was no way I could have put the time in on set pieces that I did last year.


I missed that time, though, always a lot of fun for me. I love creating illusions out of cheap posterboard and markers. I thought last year's props were outstanding and really set the scenes, but they weren't exactly necessary. They just create the layers of meaning and visual richness that I love and I particularly love the funky way we get to do it for the Jell-O Show. It's supposed to look homemade. That's part of the charm.

I do kind of wish for the shirts that I had added this one more layer of detail that I left out, the warped grid that made the gravitational waves look more 3-D. It would have made the printing even harder and probably would have meant making extra screens to try to get all the detail in. I briefly thought of adding some handpainted detail like I did last year, but I won't. They're done. I have actual paid work I am supposed to do this week. Today I can't, because my days of fulltime printing are over, but tomorrow I must. At least some of it. And then more practicing, and then comes Saturday, and tra la la! See you at the Gallery!

A Week to Go!

Finally taking a break from practicing to write! Thought I'd check and see if my video is still online, and it is!
Jell-O Video Go watch it so it will stay popular enough to keep out of the internet dump.

We got good pre-show publicity yesterday, with little articles in both the Eugene Weekly and the Register Guard. These were for the call to artists, and as always I hope next week isn't too busy so they decide to feature the event too. If you're on Facebook we do have an event page, and there are lots of things posted on my own Facebook page, Gelatinaceae too. In addition, the Radar Angels have a Facebook page. So plenty of places to make your likes and comments and get the jiggle-giggles. I expect Mr. David Gibbs will continue to post lots of things as he does Instagram and who knows what, and he's just a little bit excited about his 20th year. Here's a cool photo he posted today that I had to steal.

I'm excited about it too, and it got me wondering how many others can claim longevity as Jell-O artists. I know a couple but not how many years, so if you are one of those people let me know so I can make a good list. It's worth recording these things for the archives. I actually do have a Jell-O Art Museum, and plan to donate it to the Smithsonian someday when I am finished with it. You know they'll want it. 

And I suppose there could be a book. I have a few books on my list to write someday when I give up all of my busywork. I've given up writing the story of the Radar Angels, as it isn't believable and I don't remember it accurately either. Plus I was hanging in the wings most of the time because I am not a person who loves group activities. I sure have been doing a lot of them, though.

The performers have been practicing twice a week, long, chaotic practices that are just beginning to really be enjoyable. It's always fun to sing, but trying to get everyone to do what they are supposed to when they are supposed to is pretty tough in such a wild creative group. We crack ourselves up with the wild lines and moves we throw in just to be silly, though when we get on stage in a week we will be terribly serious. As you know if you have ever watched a show.

Costumes are one of the most fun parts and I have some great ones lined up for myself. I will be wearing St. Vincent de Paul and topping my outfits off with Jell-O, as per usual. I got some great shoes which got me really thrilled. They were on sale but are actually expensive shoes marked way down, and very comfortable. I really must wear good shoes now, even for a few hours. I won't be in heels although to give you a hint about my character, she always wears heels. In fact she has to as her feet are permanently molded into the provocative heels-raised position that throws your bottom into a come-hither shape and kills your back. So yeah, mine are properly called mules. I will wear a couple of aprons and some gloves, cat-eye sunglasses, the usual Radar Angels Jell-O Show outfits. That's just a bit of what I will have to put together for my several roles. I get to be the Queen and an artist and the hostess and at least two great stage roles, and that's just me. It will be a legendary stage show. The music and dancing are the best ever! You'll love the premise, too, it's just hilarious. People will be talking about it, so you'll want to see it for yourself.

There will be t-shirts, which reminds me that making the design was supposed to be at the top of my list today. I needed some time off. It's just as important to do this, to my mind. This will be a super busy week, and I wouldn't want to miss writing about it. And now, because you read to the end, I will show you a preview of my piece. It doesn't look as good on my back porch as it will in the gallery, but I like it. Kind of simple for a change.

It's big, about 30 inches across and half as high. I don't know if I'll do anything more to it or not. I made a lot of Jell-O, so I'm a little tired of it, and I still have to make the Tacky Food at the end of next week if I have time. Guess we'll see. So if you don't hear much from me, come to the show, as you will have to see things in person for yourself. I know if you are one of my Saturday Market family and friends, you can't come, and of course my heart is broken because I can't sell on Opening Day, but we'll be together the second week of April and that will have to do. We have the whole year. Jell-O is only now, and then it's gone. Except for the museum, of course.

Wavy Waves

As exploration for my own interpretation of Jell-O Waves I decided to go with seeing what it did in liquid form. I poured out my usual recipe of aqua and green gelatin on big tub lids, the ones that are 4 ft. or even 5 ft. long. (I have a lot of plastic tubs on hand.) After I poured it on, I moved the lid around to let the gelatin flow as it cooled, seeing if I could get some permanent folds and ripples and other liquid forms in the dried form.

It has worked really well, so I made quite a few in several watery shades, and my plan is to glue them together and make a big wave, hopefully cresting or breaking in a fairly realistic way. For now I just have the shapes as they dried, but I plan to wet some of them in places to curve them or nestle them so the colors will add up to new colors as the pieces meld.

Hard to photograph, hard to imagine, but easy to do.

The one shown is about four feet long and is now an element in a different sculpture, but you can see how they look after pouring out several layers of gelatin. The thickness determines the color and that is interesting as well.

When they have dried enough for the edges to lift off, about eight hours or so, I peel them off carefully and flip the pieces over onto a series of glass jugs laid on their sides, or in other words, an undulating glass surface. That lets the wave pieces dip and swell and get out of a flat plane. The results of that part have been very satisfying. The edges curl and scallop themselves much like the leaf and flower pieces do, but on a bigger scale. A couple of the pieces will make super elegant wave hats, perhaps.

Next I have to come up with a t-shirt design concept. I found the lettering I want to use, but the graphic is still elusive. I like to let my visual mind ruminate over the course of a few weeks to see what I run into, think about, or decide works for me in the format I want to use. I prefer to make handmade art for the shirts, and do it the old-school way of taking a drawing to screens to prints with nothing more than a copy machine and my skills. It sounds hard but I've done it so many times it's more fun than work. I'm trying to hold onto that attitude as much as possible with the Jell-O Art Show. Make some fun!

Oh, and here is the poster! Big thanks to Jacque Klas for great design!!