Jell-O Research

Jell-O has a long and rich history, and is well over 100 years old, in the form of  a convenience food you can buy with instructions. As it is a byproduct of rendering animals, it was used for probably centuries as a luxury product or maybe even a regular item in any home that kept and used animals for food. Things like consomme, molded savory or sweet dishes, and many common foods used gelatin for its interesting properties and mostly neutral taste. Someone finally packaged it up for people who did not want to take the trouble of raising meat animals and parting them out to make other useful things and substances.

Get this book if you can find it, Jell-O: A Biography by Carolyn Wyman. It was published in 2001 and she did contact some of us to include us in her book, which is super fun and put us on the map internationally. If you are on Instagram, just look around for jellies and Jell-O and you will find tons of working artists and lots of leads to find out more. I have a few posts down in the archives about some of it, with links to the people I discovered awhile back when I had the notion to be a world-famous Jell-O Artist. If I have time later I will try to add a few to this post. You may still be able to find The Jell-O Knight on FB, or David Gibbs who is one of our most prolific and dedicated local artists. He can lead you to many others.

Due to my discomfort with social media I have lost touch for the most part with all of that, just staying in my own little realm using enough energy to get each year's show to happen and to keep my hand in, but some years I have low energy for it and this year is one. Not sure why, probably the world situation which is about as easy to navigate as a cream cheese and celery lime Jell-O salad in the middle of your plate. You know you CAN eat it, you just don't really want to.

But I copied out a few things from the book the other day. There's a lot more! 

 Things people say about Jell-O as something impossible: 

Like nailing Jell-O to the wall 

Like trying to find bones in Jell-O 

Like eating Jell-O with chopsticks 

Like lassoing Jell-O 

Nothing’s set in Jell-O 

That sounds like legal Jell-O 

Jell-O for brains 

Slogans: 

There’s always room for Jell-O (1964) 

Jell-O again (1946) 

The best of everything (1967) 

How sweet it isn’t (1968) 

Just for the fun of it...Jell-O tonight (1956) 

If it was there you’d eat it (1970) 

Somehow it’s always right (1971) 

Make someone happy. Make someone Jell-O (1972) 

Don’t say no, say Jell-O (1975) 

Jell-O is thrilling but not filling (1978) 

Make some fun (1979) 

What being a kid is all about (1987) 

You can’t be a kid without it (1988) 

Jell-O gelatin’s place is a kid’s face (1990) 

Still the coolest (1995) 

It’s alive (1995) 

Smile more (1998) 

Make some magic (2001)