Surrender to Jell-O

It's not looking good for a full recovery from Covid restrictions by April 3rd. It's definitely not possible to rehearse a show in the ways we used to in January and February and March. So for many weeks I agonized and wanted to not be the Queen of Jell-O Art and not have to figure out what to do for 2021.

It made me angry and shut down just to think about it. Also, April 3rd is Opening Day of Saturday Market and I really hate to miss that to play Queen...I need the money and Market needs me. For the last several years the calendar has favored me with end-of-March Jell-O Art Show dates and I've gotten too used to it. But April Fool's Day does not negotiate.

Plus, nothing is normal or even predictable and that has been true for a year (or a lifetime, depending on your perspective.) I'm worn down by it. 

I have a box of unprinted t-shirts and an unfinished design and an unfinished script from last year that was all pre-pandemic. So innocent and unuseable now.

 

There was actually some Jell-O Art. We kind of had a show on FB and that counts. So this I think will be our 32nd. Or 33rd, I have lost track.

Excellent piece by Kari Berg, and I made some props for our song Jell-O on the Grits by Nan. And go over to Instagram and see the multitude of photos by David Gibbs, who has done it year round in style.

But the thing that always works is some level of surrender. We had a zoom where I got laughed at, which generally happens at our first meeting every year since they know me and I am always this way...reluctant and in need of some kind of adjustment. While it is pretty hard to find anything amusing in the zetigeist, there has to be something. There are plenty of songs to parody. I'm kind of obsessed with

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdZLi9oWNZg 

and there's always making a 2021 version of this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZj8lrSZHsE

So I laughed at myself, and recognized that as Queen, while I do have some impulse to serve the public and the fans, and the troupe, I am not required to be a superhero. This Queen is vulnerable and human, and also old, so I could indeed cut back and do less in response to how much harder it is.

The Radar Angels are working on a YouTube video idea, for this and for the absence of Fair, which is also not happening, but I opted out of performing on that, so far. The performing is still not all that much fun for me, though I like to sing. And now that I am fatter from all the stress eating, lots of my little costumes aren't that fun either. So I checked that requirement off my list. I can still do it if the fun quotient improves.

Since it is likely that attendance will still be restricted at the gallery, I could maybe not show up that day and go to Market. I'd have to do something, but maybe I could make a video too. I could make it as professional as possible with a little advice from some new techy friends I made by volunteering for the Virtual Fair, OCF in the Clouds. I might have to leave the house to do it, but that hurdle is small enough.

And the workshop I had planned for last year, where people help me use up all my tubs of dried gelatin pieces by making things, might also be possible in some limited form. A small group could do it in person, as indoor gatherings are almost happening now. That would be in mid-March, and could be videotaped to show at the Jell-O Show or online. Not overwhelmingly difficult to imagine.

So, I got out all my stuff and made some Jell-O. I made some colorful blendy pieces to be cheery, and had one idea for a sculpture I'd like to do, so I collected some branches and sticks because everything's better on a stick. I was inspired by an Art Beat show about a floral designer who makes incredible wearable and displayable natural sculptures with flowers. Anything you can do with flowers I can generally do with Jell-O. 

So I'm launched the tiniest bit. No promises. If it isn't fun, I'm not going to do it.

Make some yourself! The dried recipe is 6 ozs gelatin in two cups of water, stir well, let bloom, melt in the microwave and pour out in thin layers. After 8 hours or so, peel it out of the dishes and flip it over. Flip it and tend it for a couple of days as it dries, then glue it together with more molten gelatin. Try stuff. 

There are lots of other possibilities. David Gibbs, the Knight, is making edible stuff mostly with agar agar. There are incredible instagrams that show video of wobble and jiggle, masterfully done. Look around the internet and you will find tons of inspiration. 

If you have kids, make it science and art at the same time. Play! 

That's an order from the Queen. If you want to, that is.