Show Week: Half over!

Crunch time. My sculpture is not finished yet, and this is as late as I have ever been since I started doing the dried gelatin pieces. It's almost too late, but I have lots of parts and a pretty clear vision of what I want, so it's a matter of getting it glued together and dried so it can go into its bell jar and then make it to the show intact.

I may have to take a repair kit, as it is a long way across town. Not a few pieces have failed to survive getting from kitchen to gallery, as many legends will tell. Someone should collect tales about the Jell-O Art Show, before we completely forget our history. Maybe next year for our 30th show we should do that! I'll put it on my list.

My Jell-O Art Show list is long, full of details about things I need to remember for that concentrated day. One year I got halfway there without my costumes...so that's one aspect. I have three Queen costumes planned for this year, with accessories to swap out and strict timing requirements. When the show itself opens at 5:00, I will have been there for many hours setting up the stage, props, staging details, my t-shirt table, the many headpieces I will bring in case someone wants to own one ($25) and display for those. Sometimes I bring an archival piece or two but probably not this year, since somehow I have to fit a throne into my car. 

Quickly, since many of you are working on pieces or still planning to, I will remind you of a couple of pro tips. It helps to make your Jell-O stronger than the package directions for any kind of stability in your piece, and to keep it from melting at room temperature. Any extra amount of clear gelatin (like Knox) will help. Those little packets have about a quarter ounce in them I think, so you will need a lot of them to make a difference, plus you can decrease the amount of water to help. If you are using Jell-O brand, you have a lot of chemicals and sugar in there too, which you don't need, since you are presumably not going to eat your sculpture. I buy plain gelatin powder online in bulk to make mine, adding only dye, but some artists believe that the sugar in Jell-O brand helps add strength. I use up to 3 ounces of powdered gelatin per cup of water, but you may not need that much.

The other thing is to know that gelatin has to absorb water a little (called "blooming") before it is ready to get to a liquid state. Mix it up in cold water, even though the package directions on the edible kind say to use hot first. Use hot first if you are not adding any extra gelatin, but if you are, let it bloom in the cold water for about ten minutes and then melt the whole mess. I use the microwave but you can do it on the stovetop as well. Stir it a lot. Get all the graininess dissolved and then skim off any foam that forms on top. 

Molds are best for quick work and if you make it strong enough you can pry the pieces out of the mold with your fingers, or try the slight melting technique of sitting the mold in hot water for a few seconds. You can glue broken pieces with molten gelatin but it's best if you plan for intact pieces with few seams, as the pieces tend to separate along their natural lines of formation. Anything can be used as a mold, but flexible plastic might be the best. Scour the goodwills for odd things to use as molds. I've found tons of old molds too, as people don't tend to value them as they used to. You can use glass and harder containers but be warned that gelatin is strong and can chip glass by pulling it that hard. It's truly amazing.

You can also use anything for color, including food coloring, dye, or candy ingredients. Be creative. This is supposed to be fun. As far as making a statement goes, I like to do that, but I don't always connect with the theme. So far my piece does not connect with fools, but it could by the time I finish, and be reflected in the title. Strange artisty things happen when I work on art...my mind flows in directions unknown and sometimes unarticulated. We'll see!

I finished the shirts on Friday and am still working on a few props, plus still learning lines and songs for the performance. I must say this Queen position has been an opening to so many levels of  the Jell-O Art Show that I did not appreciate in the same way before I was crowned. I've always done the art and shirts and promoted the event, but now I have a kind of maternal or benevolent view of the happening. I feel responsible, and the pressure to be clever has been hard on me. 

Those Slug Queens use more glitter than I do

Being able to act from a persona is very helpful, though. I do what the Queen of Jell-O Art wants to do, speak like she would speak, guide like she would guide, and try to empower my public and my fellow artists. She's not autocratic or demanding, unless that furthers the fun of the narrative, and she is a very human queen. She wants to be loved (from a distance) and wants to serve well. She needs no King and never will, in fact she resists power even while trying to use hers for the forces of good. It's a position that is open to interpretation but at the same time somewhat circumscribed in that many things are expected of her. 

This is a Knight of my realm, being far too resplendent.

I do find that when I rise to those expectations through her, the results are generally pleasing. I got to receive an award for the Radar Angels from the Mayor last year. I get to be as royal as I please as long as I ignore those who don't take the whole thing seriously. And I also get the option of not taking the whole thing too seriously!

And it is supposed to be fun! Repeat that when you have gelatin all over your kitchen and your piece keeps slipping away from you. If  Jell-O makes you her fool this year, no matter. It will be over quickly, and you will get another chance next year to be in similar straits. Don't worry about it. Bring your failure and put it on a pedestal, and you will find it looks a lot more successful in context. Art is not supposed to be perfect, it's supposed to be creative. Do your best to open your synapses and let your brain tell your hands and eyes what it sees. 

Here's your chance to do real art,to take it to any level you like. It's all up to you. I will love it no matter what. So when you see an old lady in a funny outfit come to ask you about your piece and your artistic process, don't be afraid. I am not going to make a fool of you, although you are welcome to that option. And don't mistake me for one of those other slimy Queens, the Slug Queens, though there will be several of them there trying to be important in a realm that is clearly that of Queen Gelatinaceae of the Jell-O Art. 

Just kidding, they're not slimy. I am truly grateful to those who show up, costumed in style, to honor our show.  If there were not Slug Queens setting a graceful example, I would not have my own position, very likely, and wouldn't know what to do with it. And anyone who goes around in lime green and chartreuse gets accolades from me. I am lucky in that I get all the Jell-O colors, which I interpret to be all the colors. My slime comes in a rainbow.

We will see what our designated Slug Queen representative, Sitara Slugshine, brings for our delight. She will appear around six to give her Benediction, so come early. It's also best to see the pieces if you come early. At 7:00 when the Radar Angels perform, it is a bit hard to see the art, and at 8:00, the big trash cans come out and everything gets put away. So see you there! 


   

Jell-O Waves

Yes! We have a title and theme for the 2016 Jell-O Art Show. It took us two brainstorms to get there, with a lot of discarded ideas which had their great aspects. The synergy of putting ten to twenty creative people in a room and telling them to open their minds is stunning to experience. I was trying to take notes and I could not follow the bursts of laughter, the outrageous images being described, and the wild synapses that crackled

as we all tried to connect Jell-O Art with what is trendy, what is funny, and what will foster a good art show and performance.

Jell-O Art is unique in the balance between the serious and the ridiculous. When you take such an awkward medium and try to shape it and express a concept with it, you depend on happy accidents and discover what you love about it as you go. The transparency and color is obviously what attracts me, with the way the colors can work together and create new ones in a shifting display from every angle. The performance is kind of like that...it happens and envelops spontaneity with careful planning and a desired outcome, but unknown results. Any joke can fall flat or be rendered not funny by April. Using the militia (Jellitia) and the birders fell right off the list this week and it's unlikely that we will land on anything political, especially locally, for the same reason. It would be a shame to polish a skit and learn music and moves to have it be really in bad taste on April 2nd. So the show theme has to be broad in scope in the beginning, and gradually narrow as we all choose our parts and refine our characters and actors' business.

Any sculpture can slide off the plate and become a mess on the way over the railroad tracks to MKAC. It felt almost like cheating when I settled into the dried gelatin because it is so much more stable and long-lasting, but after so many years I've gotten over that. I've been able to do so many more things with it that I don't really miss the jiggle. And as an old angel, I've gotten over the need for glamour and prefer the intellectual aspects of the performance. Not that I am a seasoned performer. Even though I am a Radar Angel and Jell-O Artist from the beginning, I only really started being part of that wing of the Angels in 2013, so I am still a newbie and somewhat in awe of the process. But I do want the jokes to be clever so I try to keep stimulating everyone to think of silly things, which they all seem quite good at and did for years without me. Okay, really I just try to keep up.

It's truly collaborative and run by consensus and that helps. Everybody gets to choose their characters, costumes, write their own lines, and find their own way to fit into the mix. That can be hard, but if you can tolerate the chaotic part in the middle, that kind of divergent thinking can certainly converge into something wonderfully together. You may not agree from the viewpoint of an audience member. You can go to the Radar Angels Facebook page and view the video of last year's performance to see for yourself what was successful and what was not. Like the page while you're there, please. Keep in mind that most of us are enthusiastic amateurs and it's rare that we have professional talent, though we generally do have some. Everyone has their strengths and as an ensemble it is both supportive and challenging. I wauv it so much.

So we settled on Waves with a list of possible interpretations and thought it would be conducive to lots of possible sculpture ideas, from the obvious water ones, through tsunamis to ripples, and of course waves travel through sound and air and other areas of science. Sine waves, ultraviolet waves, standing waves, and so on will work, not to forget permanent waves and 40's Navy women. If you want something really amusing, go read urban dictionary and see what else is in the culture. There's plenty to draw from. I have a lot of faith in the Jell-O Artists who continually delight me with the myriad ways they can bring fresh ideas and techniques each year. I know we will get some great pieces and you will want to come and see them as well.

As for the performance, for it to be the maximum fun it has to stay secret. If you read previous blogs you know I can't help giving hints and I will no doubt reward you with that this year in some form. I will tell you now that because we have the present Slug Queen, Markalo Parkalo, Your Queen and Mine, in our group, he will be appearing in lots of ways and you will want to see them for yourself. I don't feel that my position as Queen of Jell-O Art is threatened by this in any way, in fact, I am still taking lessons on Queenliness so hope to gain some skills, even if just in waving practice. You never know when you will be asked to appear in a parade (it could happen) so I need to make sure my wrists are flexible enough and my fascinators are dusted.

So you can start thinking now about your piece. I am going to order more gelatin as I'm on my last four pound bag. I'm not inspired yet, having been doing a lot of meeting stuff and thinking about really dry and political and academic topics, but this weekend I plan to sweep the papers off the table and get some pie plates filled with color. I don't really need to have a concept at this early stage. Just starting to play will stimulate me to think that way, to step into the flow and let it carry me. I'ma gonna wave, and if it doesn't feel like a wavegasm yet, I'll just wave it off as a Wavavirus and catch the next one. Surf's up!

Honored!

Last night the Radar Angels and the Queen of Jell-O Art got to stand on the stage of Art and the Vineyard and receive the Community Partner of the year award from Maude Kerns Art Center, handed to me by the Mayor of Eugene, Kitty Piercy! Then we sang "Come Go With Me" and Kitty sang too. A big thanks to Marty Chilla for making that happen and for all the people who pretended it was okay that I flubbed the lyrics. I knew when Kitty handed me that mic I was in trouble. I did not go to any of the rehearsals! Too busy. Good thing I have such a loving public and a stunning crown.

I totally missed the opportunity to have the mayor put on some Jell-O; just forgot to take any in my haste to get there after my Saturday Market day. My costume turned out terrific I must say, well worth the $21.50 I spent on Thursday to get the basic items. Ron Pike's suitcase full of red, white and blue gear really worked for me. I wonder if he would sell me the red net tutu.

The Radar Angels are an amazing group to be a member of. We few old traditionals have been doing this together since the late-70's, and incredible lifetime of friendship and art. Lots of people who don't really participate in the performing or Jell-O Art are still members and occasionally admit to it. We have all kinds of us, all gender combinations and some new kids and people who have wanted to be members for years and just found out how easy it can be.

The art is the driving force, but the support for each other and the caring community of us is the content that really keeps us going. It's mostly Indi, of course, so persistent and so steady, always inviting and complimenting and carrying the honesty and heart. I most certainly would not be there or maybe even an artist without her. I'll stop there because there are many people to thank, old and young, and I have too much work to do.

I know there were some photos taken of me in that costume which may never reappear in its entirety so I will come back and post one if I get one in the next couple of days. I am off to the Mall of the Woods and have a ton of things to organize and make happen before then, but I did want to remark upon our luck and our joy at being awarded this honor. Thank you to Maude Kerns staff and volunteers and thank you to the best Eugene Mayor ever. We are happy to serve!

It was pretty cute when that southern Slug Queen tried to grab my award. I hope I didn't hurt her when I pushed her out of the way. Mwah!

Write or Do?

It's March! The Show is in three weeks and a few days! Panic time...what am I doing? At least last night I got some ideas for the t-shirt design, which is a big part of what I must get done. No big reveal though. I was looking for an icon to use, something from the poster, something from the performance, something cute that I haven't used before, something that will speak to the theme...overwhelming. At least the poster solves the lettering issue for me these days. Thanks, Jacque!

Vintage shirt 

As a person who loves type and hand-lettering, I always want to do something original, but it gets harder and harder as I get farther from the world of graphic arts. One reason I get obsessed with the props is that I get to make them by hand, in the old fashioned Xerox art mode, doing collage or kitsch or whatever I want. I'm in charge. I don't have to think about sales, or inventory, or the many limits of making things for retail sales.

That's the key to Jell-O Art for me: it isn't for sale. Of course with the t-shirts I do sell them so I do have to think about all those things, which is probably where the panic comes from and why I often leave that part for the last minute. This year I committed to buying the shirts really early for other reasons and now I really have to make it happen so that investment pays off. Last year I lost money...usually I break even, which is fine, but it would be nice to do something people love so they will pony up the $10 and I can make a good donation to the gallery too. So a little pressure. No Shirley Temple to work with this year.

But I think I have a handle on that, and a few of the props are either made or quite clear in my visual memory so they will be easy to finish up. The Tacky Food is pretty easy: I get out a box of candy molds and mix up some edible Jell-O and spend a good amount of the last couple of days making little Jigglers. They get eaten. Last year I tried the complex injected technique you can find all over the internet but this year I won't do anything fancy. I do have to clean my entire kitchen and refrigerator, but that needs to be done anyway.

The Radar Angels, lots of individual depictions of the various people.

Costumes, check. Some sewing and accessories, a couple of run-throughs to see if there is time for changes and if there are too many details to be practical. But the Jell-O! What am I doing?

I really have no idea. I guess clearing my list of other things does help. I mailed my taxes yesterday and that was a relief. I studied up on Australian birds for my trip. I looked at the Italian CDs and the stack of books and despaired a little, but there is still some time. Jell-O happens in March but the trip is not until April.
After the opening of Market. Saturday Market! How will I be ready for that! Country Fair! Deadlines and details!

It's not really a panic. I'm just trying to write a lively blog after writing a dull one in divinetension.blogspot.com. I'm hoping some ideas will come to me about my sculpture. I could make it about the odyssey of collaboration, how difficult that is for me. Dull. I could comment on the odyssey of life. Too broad. I could find some new technique...after 27 years I'm not sure that is true. I could default to dried and make something spectacular. Tempting. Like a big giant....goddess! Cruise ship! Island!

One of the Radar Angels...I don't remember who.

No, no and no. Ideas to reject are a start I guess. I don't want another giant thing to try to wedge into my project room, which is already full of big Jell-O pieces. I think I should go jiggly. That means getting a concept and then unpacking the boxes of molds and things I have collected, making a new mess. I suppose that is inevitable. Not today though. We meet tonight and I have to practice my kazoo.

Keep thinking! Brilliance and inspiration don't come easily. Sometimes the incubation period is happening inside while you are doing other things. I'll just do other things then. Hope your piece is forming in your creative recesses. Enjoy the ride. Three more weeks and a few days and it will all be over but the posting on Facebook.

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.

Splash!

The Radar Angels jumped into the Jell-O Art pool
   yesterday with both feet. Felt like a cannonball, but the water was warm and inviting.

About twelve or thirteen of us crowded onto the stage at MKAC yesterday and entertained the annual meeting of their Board with a few short songs. I was so grateful to all of us for showing up in style and being so easily expressive. The musicians of the moment, Larry, Wren and Marty and Sunny, really carry things through and are extremely easy to work with. Dependable, cheerful, supportive...I could go on. I was sick all week with a terrible cold and had to miss the one rehearsal we had for this mini-show, but I'm guessing you could hardly tell. We stood up there with no mics, no strict procedure set up...we winged it. I think it sounded pretty good, though I tend to not hear anything much when I perform, being in an altered state of hyperpresence/absence because I'm an introvert and not an experienced performer. But maybe it's the costumes or all the low-key family singing or just the supportive group of Angels, somehow I get up there and sing loud and don't care and just do it like it comes naturally. Indi often has to tell me obvious things, like look at the audience, etc. but really, I amaze myself when I get up there and do that.

It would not be possible without the accepting nature and the high level of support of each one of the group. While singing and playing an instrument at the same time is an astounding skill, it is no less important to put on a wig and some ruffles and get up there to just be part of the group and sing behind whomever is singing. The one who has my undying gratitude and is really the one who gets the most credit, is Indi Stern. She is the glue that keeps it all together. Each and every one of the lovelies who showed up was fantastic in their own right, so a big thanks to Karen, Nan, Annemarie, Jacque, Mark, Sakti, and the ones who wanted to be there but couldn't: Ariel, Tania, Ruby, Sherri,Teresa, Jorge, Noah, Liliana, Jennifer, Angela, Joanie, and the rest of the sixty or so who call themselves Angels. Thanks also to those who came in support, Bee, Clare, Jude, Ben and Terry, and more. Huge thanks to the Board and Staff of Maude Kerns Art Center for thinking of us and the opportunity and their cooperation. Over-the-top cooperation as it turned out. I offered the chance for people to wear a Jell-O flower on their heads and since there were 20 flowers and about 50 people, I figured a couple would do it and the rest would stay in the box. Wrong! I should have brought more. It was so thrilling to look out over the audience at so many men and women wearing Jell-O. No one seemed to be too sophisticated to try it. That was the best. What a great community. And here I have to say a word of thanks also to the dearly departed, especially Gil Harrison, who was always there, and is sorely missed. And my still very-much alive mentors Leslie and Celeste, who always were able to make looking professional easy and possible. And still do. And Mom!

I had of course been quite nervous about our reception and my speech and giving a piece to the gallery, but with all the support I tend to try to just live with the anxiety and know that the crowd will be forgiving. It's like a lot of Radar Angel things, you put on your apron and put some Jell-O on your head and pretty soon you're Marilyn Monroe without the tragedy. It's like a lot of Life things I suppose, and I think I'll expound upon those in my other blog, http://divinetension.blogspot.com/ where I write about the more personal side of it all. This is the Jell-O Blog and yesterday was a Big Jell-O Day.

I had a lot of inquiries about the dried gelatin art itself and if you look back there is a lot of expostion in earlier blogs about the technique. I'll say it again here: it's really simple. I get gelatin powder, which I buy in bulk but for a start you can get the Knox stuff in the little packets. You mix it in cold water, and for the dried stuff or wet stuff you want to make art with, you mix it stronger than the package directions. I've settled on a formula about 12 times stronger than the 1/4 oz package meant to mix with a cup of water (or 3oz per cup). I think it would work 6 times stronger or anywhere in between, so just try something and see. The gelatin content makes it strong, the water makes it workable. After you mix it in cold water, let it sit for at least 10 minutes to "bloom" or absorb the water. I do it in a canning jar, because then I put it in the microwave for a minute or two to melt. Let that sit a bit too, then skim off the foam, add a little color (I just use liquid procion dye because I work with textiles and have a lot of dye around, but you can use food coloring or whatever you want) and then pour it into dishes in thin layers. You can also melt it in a pan if you don't want to use the microwave.

This is a jiggly one by David Gibbs

You can pour it into molds if you want shapes, but for the flowers I use glass pie plates and baking dishes. I will warn you that you have to dedicate those to Jell-O because the stuff is so strong that sometimes the dried bits will pull off actual bits of glass, so you don't want to later use the dish for food. Make the layers as thin as you want, from a mere coating to about 1/8 inch, depending on the result you want. Stuff that is too thick won't dry fast enough to avoid mold. Stuff that is too thin needs attention pretty soon or you won't be able to get it off without re-wetting it. I also swirl it around in bowls which makes a lot of interesting things happen.

I put the dishes on top of the furniture where it's hot and come back in a few hours to tend it. I generally run my fingernail or a knife around the edge and then pry it out, in one piece or several, and then flip it over to dry some more. I make petal or leaf shapes at this point, sometimes laying it over the edge of the dish to bend or curl. You are going to have to experiment according to what you want as a final result. I have tried to keep it flat sometimes, which is pretty hard, and I also use textured surfaces sometimes, like a plastic lettuce leaf bowl I have that makes nice flower and leaf replicas. Sometimes I'll stretch it or cut in a spiral so I can pull out a long string to make boingy things. I twist it and shape it or just let it do what it wants. You have to tend it for a couple of days depending on your heat, or less, so you have to pay attention. If it changes texture in a weird way, remelt it. I've gotten rid of mold with bleach, but once its moldy you might as well throw it out and start over, as the animal origins tend to emerge with a nasty smell you don't want to add to your smell memory bank.

To make the flowers I just select pieces I like, hold them together in various ways and then stick them together with melted gelatin (not too hot, it can burn like crazy and sticks on you). Sometimes I'll clamp with a clothespin or just hold it together (for at least a 60 seconds) and then set it up again to dry. If you don't like it, you can pry it apart or get it wet and take it apart, or remelt the whole thing. It's really up to you to work with it and get to know the limits or the open qualities it offers. You can use objects in additional ways, like wire stems or toys or whatever you think helps your piece say what you want it to say. It's art! You are the artist and it's your job to work with the medium and your creative process to make something from nothing. That's an incredible joy for a lot of people and worth a try for everyone. You are an artist if you create.

To me that is really simple at this point but like I said yesterday, I feel like it took my whole life to get here. Jell-O Art made me an artist. I started out with my box of Cherry or Berry Blue and went from there, and you can do that too. The wet jiggly kind of Jell-O Art has its own delights and in fact I think I might challenge myself to make a wet piece this year. That also has its own demands, mostly because it will only last a few days so you have to do it right before the show (which is March 28 this year.) If you want the jiggle you can't make it as stiff, but you can use the Jell-O brand if you want and just add in a bit of Knox or less water, and those pieces have lots of charms too. That type of work is actually harder than the dried, in my opinion, but can also be quite rewarding. Perhaps another blog post.

This was made in a complex process and I'll tell you someday

So that should answer the basic questions. This will be the 26th or 27th Jell-O Art Show, so there is a long history with a lot of legends and stories to discover, and some of it is found online here and there if you look. There have been other Jell-O artists and shows, as you will see, but we can give ourselves (and I include MKAC in this) a lot of credit for keeping it alive. We do it because it adds joy to our lives and warms our hearts and gives us something happy to do while we wait for spring. Please do participate. This is a thing to do, not just view, and it is above all, supposed to be fun. So have some. Make Jell-O Tonight!

Sick of Jell-O

What? You're tired of hearing about Jell-O Art and all of its many charms? Yeah, me too. But really I'm just nervous. I think I finished up my piece yesterday, though I have to try to take it outside to photograph today and could break it. Better to break it today than on Saturday when I won't have the time to fix it.

I'm tired of rehearsing, too, as we meet almost every evening to go through the show and the songs again and again. I need the practice, of course, and need the slight pressure of the timing of my lines and songs, to get comfortable with the speed of it all and most of all, to be able to relax and enjoy it.

That's been one of the big challenges of stepping up into more involvement. It's supposed to be fun. Last year I was so nervous it was more pressure than fun, until it was over, and then the emotional roller-coaster effect was still there, but this year I am trying hard to *get over myself.* Of course I'm nervous. Even seasoned performers have the jitters about things that they can't control. Gazillions of performers get up there and do it anyway, to our great delight and wonder. Them showing their nervousness does not make our experience better. 

So I will focus on smiling, laughing, and having a bunch of fun. That is supposed to be the point, over all of the other minor points like promoting the arts and the Maude Kerns Art Center and the Radar Angels and the Eugene arts scene and all of the other things that come with this. It is going to be fun.

One of the parts I like best is making the funky set pieces and signs and props we need to make our literary points in the short show. I get to make them any way I want to, so I haul out my rusty graphics skills and do some lettering on some cheap posterboard. I spend way too much money and time on things that will have a very brief life. My house is full of them, though I am getting a little more life out of a few this year by recycling them into new pieces. 

Here are a couple of the signs we'll be using for the performance. It's a game show, loosely based on Jeopardy, and it moves quickly so we need visual aids to keep the audience with us. Let's hope they are effective. My memory of past shows is that the uneducated viewer (as I was for years, being all wrapped up in my own Jell-O world) gets only part of the show as it goes by. The songs do persist if they are catchy. We have some really catchy ones this year, so we're all going around singing funny lyrics about Jell-O to ourselves. You might spot me around the neighborhood, or downtown, deep in thought as I try to not revert to the original songs we have hijacked for our silly purposes.

And while I am vitally interested in the deep meanings and connections of it all to the big cosmic pictures, hardly anyone else goes there. Most people embrace the silliness and laugh at my great capacity to take it all seriously. Some people get that, generally other Jell-O artists. Some work full-time at this like I do for this period of the winter and spring. We don't get paid. Our satisfaction is our reward, if we value fun like we should.

I'm still learning to value the fun over the seriousness, so I get some odd looks and have to remember to moderate my intensity. My Jell-O creations are really quite important to me and I am emotionally involved with every single one, even the hair ornaments and headbands. I remember them and love them and they are exalted in my memory and photographs, and there are still so few about the world that it is a pleasant shock to see them. Most of the recipients gamely found a place of value for them, though some have ended up as compost. It wouldn't be the first time someone's artistic creations were undervalued.

It's good for me to feel that sense that even some of my most important friends don't really understand or value this art experience the way I do. Most of my Market people make things every day and making things, however elaborate or impractical, just doesn't always impress them. People who work in precious metals or marble or wood have a bit of a hard time accepting gelatin up in their league, not to mention completely un-credentialed artists who put on gelatinous airs and show in real galleries.

Alas, they have also lost sight of the fun. Let's all try as hard as we can to believe in it, to put the value in fun that it deserves. This year's Jell-O slogan, if we are to believe an ad in Parade magazine, is *Fun things up this Easter* or substitute holiday I suppose, to seem like a new slogan every month or so. (*Fun things up this Memorial Day*?) Let us take our cue from Jell-O itself.

Be transparent, be colorful, be jiggly and be sweet. Melt easily at room temperature. Resist all attempts to tame you and make you ordinary. Be inventive (what makes Berry Blue, that unreal mouthwash color?) and be consistent (over 100 years of amazing desserts, not to even list the many salads and casseroles) but ever new. Re-invent yourself at least every spring, if not more often, and always, always, fun things up if you can.

Suspend the other rules for awhile. Make verbs out of concepts (just funning you here) and concepts into sculpture. Laugh at yourself when you get too far into it. Laugh at each other when you get the chance. Be encouraging to those who aren't where you are yet, and humble about how hard you have worked at this for these 26 years. Take care of each other and let others take care of you. Stay forever young.

No wait, that isn't one of our songs; I'm digressing again. Gotta make some Tacky Food today, and finish the props and my costumes for Dress Rehearsal tonight and Tech Rehearsal tomorrow. Gotta get up early tomorrow and watch Michael from MKAC rock the morning show on KEZI. So glad it is him and not me. Gotta walk my foot around and coddle my voice and eat well and sleep well and make this thing into history so I can get on to the other things in my life.

And put my Jell-O away for a year. I really plan to do this, to put it all up in the attic and not be a Jell-O artist for a bit. It will leak out of course, but I am going to try hard. And that reminds me, did you see the OPB special called Cold Case: JFK last night? It was good, but the best part was the ballistic gelatin. They fired bullets through the gelatin, which behaves like human tissue (sorry if this upsets you) and it was really outstandingly beautiful. I'm not sure why they always make it in that unappealing yellow, but the patterns in slow motion are graceful and fractal, and what's more, it closes back up after the bullet passes through, a completely unexpected effect that makes me think. 

Oh, forget it, I know I won't put it all up in the attic. I'm already thinking about my next piece. It's my true art form. I'm just lucky that I get to fun it up.