Queens and Service

 It's true, I boycotted the Slug Queen Coronation this year. I wasn't boycotting the Queens, many of whom I love dearly and are solid friends. For the last 14 years, after being crowned Queen of Jell-O Art, I have worked to understand what a Queen is for, and how to best serve the public and bring joy. The first year I toyed with the idea of hijacking the Coronation as a prank, swooping in with my adjacent royalty to see what would happen, but I quickly realized I had no right to do that and it would only be funny for a minute. Instead I asked to be a Celebrity Judge, and that was fun and proper, even though I was mistaken for a candidate who didn't know the rules. I didn't know the rules, it's true, but I did my part and it was fun.

The following years I decided to serve Kim Still, their Lady-in-Waiting, in whatever she needed to get the event mounted, which turned out to be quite a bit. I enticed a couple of my Jell-O Art friends to come down early and help set up the stage and chairs, and put things away at the end. Over time my dependability gained value and we began to have reserved seats, eventually identified as the Realm of Gelatinaceae. Some years we were few and some many, but generally we kept to our place and just supported the event, which is actually a little older than the Jell-O Art Show and has always involved some Radar Angels. 

Some years we got thanked and some we didn't, but as I tend to do, I kept looking for needs that I could fill and would carry around a second hatbox to collect donations for the event, would show up in costume and with a new Jell-O fascinator and laugh and heckle along with the rest of the audience. I made friends with most of the Old Queens and tried never to steal any of their attention for myself, which actually doesn't work anyway, but just add to what was happening in the most positive ways. I would give the new Queen a piece of Jell-O Art with a formal invitation to do the Benediction at the Jell-O Art Show.

When this new manager of the market came along, she asked how to get "in" at the Coronation and as I hadn't figured her out yet, I invited her and two of her friends to be my guests in my reserved seats. I picked out Jell-O fascinators for them to wear and planned to host them graciously while they enjoyed the show. They formed a plan to prank the show without telling me, and came as The Salts, with cool salt cellar hats and personas.

They mangled the Jell-O I gave them and I was offended that guests of mine would do such a passive-aggressive act, to come as enemies of the slugs. It was a little bit amusing to some people but it was one of the early clues to just what kind of a person she was. The second year they brought in a different third person and put her up on stage in bruise makeup to sing "I will survive," claiming she was "assalted" and making the song about domestic abuse, which is never funny and a trigger issue for people at the show, so just bad taste. 

She claimed the stage without permission while the Queens were off voting, so they didn't hear her song or see any of it. The third year, they switched out the third person to someone else who was very aggressive, frowning and photo-bombing the Queens during the photo opportunity promenade at the beginning as people gather, which is the entertainment between 6:00 an 6:30 while the band plays. They did it to a group photo of the Celebrity Judges and many of the archival photos were ruined that way. It was nasty and mean and not at all funny. The second year Kim thanked the group from Saturday Market and they got reserved seats, which I put in the row behind me so I didn't have to look at them, and I did that the third year too.

During the intermission that third year, as the Queens left to go vote, one of the more innocent Old Queens invited the Salts up on stage, and the narcissist ran with it, engaging the audience in a long, sexist and racist story with audience participation making humiliating noises, which of course they did fall for, but which ended before any punchline, just making it an awkward bid for attention. I found it disgusting.

This person, the narcissist, has dominated my work life in such a pervasive and transgressive way I have been trying to figure out for years how to counter it and preserve my rights to make a living and express myself in all of the ways I have built to do that. It has been a devastating force in my life that just keeps escalating no matter what I do. I have a full no-contact policy with that person and her main enablers, which I talk about sometimes in my other blog, divine tension, where I keep track of the ways she is destroying the market community. You can research it there if you like.

So this year I decided participating in whatever the Salts had planned was not going to be my choice. I let Kim know about what I had observed, said it was the wrong vibe for the Coronation and I would not facilitate it. So I pulled the Jell-O people out, though I gave them the choice to still do it without me, as I am not a controlling kind of Queen. They made their own choices. 

I wrote the Queens a letter listing all of the service things I did and suggesting that to support Kim they ought to find a way to make sure those got done. I didn't burden them with the full drama of my accounting, but of course they all already had their own opinions of the Salts and what they brought downtown. I have never insisted that everyone agree with me, but that they make their own observations and figure out their own ways forward.

I didn't tell them they had to stand with me against a bully. That is up to all of you and everyone else to decide how to do, but it has cost me friends and hasn't ended. My point was that I am willing to give up something I love, something fun and joyous and positive, to show that joy can be tromped on and I won't put up with it. 

I hope to return to the Coronation next year if circumstances change, but I am not going to enable bullies. It isn't that hard to identify the patterns of a narcissist, which are well-described online and always need to be blocked, taught about, and not given power to. Feel free to ask me in person about any of this and I will tell you.

Of course everything about the Jell-O Art Show is intact, the Radar Angels are even more glamorous and hilarious than ever, and we are already planning for next year's show in late March 2027. I'll be inviting the new Queen at some point, when we get a chance to connect in person. 

Make Jell-O if you are called to do so! I am taking a break to make apple juice and do something with all of the pears from my trees, which are having a stellar year. Have a stellar year! 

And don't give power to narcissists.  

Post-Show Semi-Review

 I like to do a photo of all the props on my porch before I tuck them away but it wasn't possible to get them all in one photo. They looked great on stage. The J-E-L-L-L-O signs and the Jamboree banner had the exact right effect and I am so glad. I enjoyed the plants, a last minute effort, and the fake food for the food fight was perfect. And yes, we know we put in an extra L , just for the L of it. 

Unfortunately as you will see in the video, I had yet another costume malfunction, which apparently is my normal. I suppose costuming more than once a year would help, or getting a dresser/fluffer to give me a once-over right before we enter would also help. It seems like in every video there I am adjusting something or other in front of everyone. I will also reflect that I am slow on stage. Am I just aging, not an experienced performer, not a diligent practicer, or all of those? Also, I will apologize for the off-key singing on the Spinning Wheel song, which was in a minor key and apparently just as I tried to tell us many times, we got off on the wrong note. Even our excellent band couldn't help us on that one. But watch the video and judge for yourself! I am always quick to criticize myself and overall, we sounded great. A big shout-out to TJ who did lights and sound...he really is a professional. The video, shot by Hedda and John from Community TV, was really good this year so we aren't too embarrassed to show it. Last year we were just too much of a three-ring circus to have a coherent presentation and we didn't want to share the video...but one does exist if you want to try to look for it. This year the name was Jell-O Jamboree, and last year it was Hell-O Jell-O. 2026 Jell-O Art Show  and here is last year's too for you people who want to see it anyway. The Tale of the Jiggly Flea 

The Slug Queen Hilaria Gastrognome did a wonderful job hitting all the high points in her Benediction. I'm glad it appears here in the video for those who missed Queen Lari's as she had to run early for a comedy show. 

The Jell-O was great! We had a couple of very dedicated young artists, this one for her second year! She looks destined for art greatness. Her piece had very creative use of molds.

 We also had one by a young man named Calvin who has been studying Egypt I guess. He also had a lot of amazing detail in his piece.

And that is going to have to be it for now, as I have work to do today! I swear I will come back with photos of things like my campfire, my headpiece with the big gold mouse ears, and more. 

Sorry this always happens. Opening Day of Saturday Market is this weekend and since I put everything off to do Jell-O I have some catching up to do!

 

The final projects in the final week

 We've been practicing as much as possible and it's sounding pretty good. All is almost ready for our dress and tech rehearsal on Friday evening, and then Saturday is the show! 

It's hard to believe we made this out of nothing. I love how when a bunch of creative people get together it just gets funny and wild and sweet in the room. I hope people don't get too tired from the march and can make it to see us.

More props. For some reason I just did not want to buy a cheap nylon flag from the internet so I made one from paper and posterboard. It was fun. I have this three-sided ruler that has six different measurements on it, like the real inches, then scales of 2X, 3X, 4x, 5X and 6X. So it is easy to measure the little nylon flag I do have, and quickly convert it to the size of the posterboard. And then all of the components are practically exact. With a few adjustments. Anyway, it looks great!

Today's project was gluing up a banner to hang at the back of the stage. I had cut the letters and their blocks out but I just don't have space in my house to spread it out so it was a pain until we got the nice weather today and I could do it on the deck. I've made a lot of big set pieces on that deck. 

We're using a lot of big Amazon boxes for set pieces this year, in an ironic way of course, (it's Jamazon) and today on the way home from the store I walked by a really big one all broken down. I know it was maybe someone's potential bed out there, but I can put it back out when we're finished with it I suppose. I thought I shouldn't pass up another serendipitous gift from the universe.

 Here's the banner:

 I still have one big project that seems hard so I've been putting it off, but tomorrow is going to have to be the day to get it done. It's likely to take more than one day. Almost all of the small projects are finished and if I get everything ready, I might make some plants and maybe lanterns, not sure. Probably just wishful thinking. I also have to dust off the pieces I will be taking from the past, and figure out how to fit it all in my car. 

 

Hope it's a good week for all of you making Jell-O. You can do it! There is no bad Jell-O Art, just challenges and the overcoming of them.

See ya! 

Getting There

 I got the shirts done on Monday, a perfect day to hang them in the sun to dry as I printed them. I am pretty happy with the results, though I had to order a darker blue shirt than I wanted. Also had to change the ink to a purple for those as the light blue didn't show up well. It was ambitious to print two colors with a blend for my first day back in the shop, but I managed. Guess I'm still a screenprinter.

Apparently my No ICE reference was too obtuse for everyone who has seen it so far. I'm sort of anti-Disney as well, but that's just an unpopular stance that no one wants to consider valid. Fine, whatever. The good thing about the Jell-O shirts is that they are only needed for one night, so if no one likes them, over the next few years they will sell at half-price and gradually go away. People want something to buy at the show, something I should capitalize on much more.  I'm just not a good capitalist.

 I've just been plugging along on the three or four main projects I still have to finish, and I'm sure I will get them finished, because I have to! I put the sticks on these banners today. I spent a ridiculous amount of time figuring out the colors and sequence of them and of course in this photo they are not even the true colors. I think they'll be great on stage though.

 What about you? Working on your Jell-O piece, or still thinking about it? You still have ten days or so, but you had better do some experiments soon.

Message me by email at dianemcwho@gmail if you have questions. And remember, there is no bad Jell-O Art!

Only two short weeks left!

 Had a long bike ride out to the dentist today, which I love because it brings all the endorphins to balance the stress. I wish I'd taken my phone because I saw some Jell-O roadkill...and it was a flat package of Lime. Unlucky Lime I guess. After you see our show you will get the joke. 

I'm slowly accomplishing what I want to get done. I really love having five or six different types of art projects going at once, one of the best parts of Jell-O time. Writing, singing, sewing, drawing, screenprinting, paper crafts, sets, props, costumes! It's all such a fun blur of time. 

It's gone by way too fast. Only two more weeks now. The fire took a great leap toward completion this week:

 I want to put a light underneath it somehow, and I found some optical fibers I may add as well. I knew I would want to have those boingies for this so I'm glad a made a lot of them.

 

Then I also thought I'd make this into a fascinator to wear at some point. It isn't all glued together yet and looks like it might be one of those that is hard to wear and doesn't hold up well in action. We'll find out.

I've been taking posters around town and that's fun, too. Sometimes people  remember me from last year and sometimes they haven't heard of the Jell-O Art Show even though this is our 37th one. Restaurant people usually know about esoteric Jell-O culture but not in our town!

Hoping some of them will show up. 

 

Every Day is Jell-O Art Day Now

 I wish I were being more productive toward this year's show because my anxiety is mounting and work is the antidote to that...but yesterday I sat in the sun for so many hours because it was one of my last free Saturdays before the market season starts up. And you know, that show on March 28th. The sun was way too seductive to resist.

Our script is almost in its final version, though we keep thinking of ways to make it tighter and more nuanced which we always do right up until the last minute, though we know that is a vexing habit that makes us less polished in the end. But with how fast the world has been changing, we want to stay current and we don't always know that what we are doing is not going to play well so we sometimes have to drop things that will sound insensitive. We can be that flexible but this year we are especially trying to get it together better as last year was a circus with too many clowns and we can do better. 

But as far as props go, that's a part I love so I've been literally picking off the low-hanging fruit by making a bunch of fake food for one scene. And working on the campfire. It's kind of working, though I have many more plans for it and I found some optical fibers yesterday I may try to fix up to add some interest. I'm told to keep it simple every year but that is just not how I operate, so I try, but I layer things up when no one is looking. Then I am reluctant to ask other people to handle props so I make myself in charge of way too much. But every year is an adventure. 

Jell-O Art in progress is next to impossible to photograph in any coherent way but I do like to document my progress and I think the fire is coming along pretty well. 

It's got gold in the flames so ought to look pretty good when I get it all glued up. It wasn't that hard to get it to this stage but there is a lot more to the concept I am struggling to even attempt. But I will do it!

Meanwhile the fake food is pretty fun so I'm roaring along with that, which I can do in the evenings out of scrap materials and some felt I bought because it was there. I'm sewing and glueing and plant to bag up lunches. Come and get it!

 I know these are kind of crude, and the limes look more like really bad pickles but the carrots are great! I like the pizza galettes too, and the apples or tomatoes will do the job even though it's not apparent which one they are. The baloney sandwich was the most time-consuming but I do think we will need baloney sandwiches so I'll attempt more. I don't guess I'll make potatoes for everyone...

I can't tell you how these fit into the narrative but you'll find out when you see the show. One of the most fun parts of our performances is that we start in January (December this year) and brainstorm repeatedly, just choosing songs we want to learn that are sometimes only tangentially related to where we think we're going, and over the ensuing months we somehow make it into a molded salad that works. We have some uncanny way of channeling the zeitgeist in good years though we have to resist a lot. But articles keep appearing in the newspaper that just feed right into what we're doing. IYKYK. Sorry I can't say more.

We're not going to use the Kristi Noem is a bird-legged ho chant, not because she should be let of the hook, but because it is sexist and body-shaming and just a bit too overt. And we don't want her in our show. We put those demons in our show last year and it was fun, but we're over it. Although it will be No Kings Day, so we hope we get some political art. 

Working on the shirt design too. Kind of need to print those this week if I can...I can! I just have to quit sitting in the sun of an afternoon, reading novels. At least if I'm going to be outside I need to be practicing the songs.

Work in Progress

 So here are my flames, so far, and the way I am making them. I'm just pouring out five different colors (red, yellow, gold, flourescent pink, and a whiter gold) on plastic wrap on a tub lid, and drying them. They're about a foot high. I plan to glue them up vertically with some kind of wood (probably paper-covered cardboard rolls or maybe actual sticks) and add whatever smaller flames it takes to make it look realistic. Just going with a vague image I have in my mind to see what it comes out like as I go. I want it kind of life size.

As you can see I put some cutlery under the plastic to keep the two from running together, and because the lids are not flat, it moves around a lot for effects I like. I tilt it to enhance that and prevent really thick parts in the middle. I stuck one piece of already dried stuff up at the top left just to use it up. I haven't always used the plastic but I like it. The gelatin releases easily and you can flip it without tearing it up by mistake. I just cut up a plastic bag but I tried the packaged wrap too and it's doable.

 These already dried ones don't look amazing to me but the full effect of them together will probably be fine. I'm planning to fasten them at the bottom to a piece of plastic netting I already had hanging around with some turquoise gelatin already embedded in it, so it will be strong at the bottom for moving around. I may abandon that plan if it looks too weird. Will probably add some green.

I'm setting that aside for now to work on cardboard and paper props I also have in my mental gallery. I love having a visual formed for what I expect to make, a gift of my brain that pleases me. I've learned that what I end up with rarely approaches my visual idea, but that is an interesting challenge too, to see if I can figure out how to align my skills with my ideas. I well remember this  frustration from my early days as an artist, which I guess starts to kick in during childhood when we start to make ambitious art. I'm so glad I didn't give up like so many kids do, and I thank my Mom, not my art teacher, for loving what I made and saving some of it for me, as she consistently did. After I had a mean first grade teacher, I never took any classes until I was an adult, and then only a couple. No doubt I have a lot of untapped potential but that's the way our life choices work out. 

I have an autobiographical piece I did when I had a broken foot I had to elevate, something I did to keep busy, which turned out to be my favorite piece ever and something I usually bring to every show. I call it an artist's book, a genre I love and have a huge desire to explore. As you may know that is an open art form that doesn't have to be a real book, but this one does have pages and a story, so.

The story is that Jell-O made me an artist. I was working at art when I got to Eugene in my  twenties, but I had no formal training and had avoided taking classes in school and had no confidence. I just kept making things and trying to sell them at Saturday Market, plus giving them to Mom. She had a nice collection of Mother's Day cards I sent home from my travels. When I met the women who became the Radar Angels, they kindly took me in and persisted in making me feel welcome despite my resistance, and the first Jell-O Art Show in 1988 was pivotal. Showing what I made in a gallery was a big step up, and Jell-O Art had a wonderful freedom. There is no critical structure for it, no credentials, no judges, prizes, evaluation. It stands on its own and says what it wants. I remember listening to people who were looking at it as I lurked, which I still do when I can. 

This was all so affirmative I just kept at it, and my offerings at Market also expanded as I gained skill and ambition and made a life in art production. I painted a lot of signs, was fascinated by lettering and also fabric, paper, and woodworking, and just made whatever I wanted for all of these decades in a mix of stuff I could sell and stuff I made anyway if it didn't sell. It wasn't always great and there were always times I was very disappointed (some of my clients were, too.) But I'd just go on to the next thing.

With the annual Jell-O Show, I really got deeply into the exploration and joy and did a lot of writing about it too. Learned to screenprint and made a million t-shirts and paper things, but Jell-O was the only place I didn't have to answer to anyone's expectations. This freed me to actually do what real artists do and after probably at least 20 years I discovered I actually was a Real Artist. 

It took so long for a lot of reasons: shedding the idea that credentials were necessary, figuring out what made me real, allowing myself to not care about external validation. It was a very personal journey and I wrote about it a lot, so you can go back to the earlier posts if you like that sort of writing. Becoming crowned the Queen was pivotal in adding in that social piece where I had a bigger role, promoting art and artists and actively encouraging other people to free themselves. I even mentored a couple of kids and did quite a lot of volunteering in school when my son was young, probably preventing him from doing it in some ways but you never know when someone will decide to be creative. I'm sure he'll find his own areas of creation to fill in his own life. There's no shortage of ways to do it out there. 

We had an interesting discussion one night about how gaming taps into that when you get fascinated by a game that some brilliant person or team created for you to play. You're participating in an essential way with what they are making, just like the people who come to the Jell-O Art Show are an important part of what we do there. I reflect on that often when we gather to write and practice the performance part, which I only started to do in 2013 after I was made Queen.

I had always wanted to sing with the Angels but thought my stage fright would be too debilitating. I sang plenty, even as part of a garage band for a couple of years, but there was never an audience (not a sober one anyway) and I downplayed my abilities and contained my desire. I decided as Queen to try to do it, and again the Angels said the right things to support me and I found my place. I love to write so now I put together a good part of the script and help us channel all of our brainstormed ideas into a somewhat coherent narrative. It's really top tier fun to collaborate with smart and funny people and the whole process is maybe the most fun thing I do. I don't love performing, but one thing I said in passing last night was that I love to be clever in public. Everyone is so kind to me in the process, the whole audience just beams their delight up at us no matter what, and it goes by so fast at the show that I always cry at the end. The next day is always disappointing when it is over for a year and I put it all away. 

So it's a good week in my Jell-O Art world. The script is almost finished, our singing was really fun last night, and we feel like we always do...this is going to be the best show ever. It's one of our running jokes. The old shows fade from my memory fast, but the spontaneity is something to remember when I think I might be too bored with Jell-O to keep going with it.

Laughing at yourself is a good thing to learn to do in life. Kind of helps balance those moments when your friends and relatives laugh at you. I don't always remember to tell people how deeply meaningful the life of a Jell-O Artist actually is. There's a lot more to it than you might expect. Make some Jell-O tonight!  

Oh, and I meant to say, if you want to work in the jiggly realm with real Jell-O, just try the Jigglers recipe which is usually on the box. It's simply less water. With Jell-O brand, you can use hot water as they direct, because it's engineered for it with sugar and other things that need to dissolve. That firmness gives you a more sturdy result that you can cut and get out of molds easier, but also feel free to use the regular recipe for the ultimate amount of jiggle. It doesn't keep well, so your final piece might have to be kind of last minute, but you could always eat your prior experiments if you want to. It's not really food, in my opinion, but a lot of people sure love it.