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. 

Jell-O Jeopardy

We have a theme for the 2014 Jell-O Art Show:  Jell-O Jeopardy. That's just about all I am going to tell you about it, because you are the artist and you have to interpret. 

I can go off on the word Jeopardy, from the TV show (which I for one faithfully watch) to the whole idea of danger and guilt...and innocence, then, because Jell-O embodies innocence and purity so it could be fun to explore its dark side.

I'm sure as the months pass we can all find a way to interpret it and have some fun with it. Working with the theme is certainly optional if it doesn't inspire you, but don't rule it out, as sometimes magic happens and the thing you were working on that seemed unrelated finds its connection. 

One of my favorite TV shows with the fabulous Alex Trebec will also surely inspire all kinds of thoughts, though. All of the questions and answers, the silly format of answering in questions, all of it can be rich for satire. The performers who gathered will be thinking up skits, characters, and songs that expand on the title and it is guaranteed that the performance will be topical, hilarious, and embarrassing for someone, at least. It's not too late to get involved with the performers, especially if you have a connection with one of us and have been holding back for some reason. The group is different every year and people skip years to deal with personal challenges, so we might have just the spot for you.

Some of us have admitted that we know nothing about Jell-O Art or the Show, so if you are in that category, start looking around the internet immediately. Google Jell-O Art, gelatin art, Gelatinaceae (a word I made up to describe my dried-gelatin flowers) Jell-O Artists, Jell-O Art images, and so on. Try to filter out the plain Jell-O references, as we are a specialized area of Jell-O, and I am the Queen of Jell-O Art, nothing like those other queens who make molded salads and wrestle in little kiddie pools of goo. There are other Jell-O artists, most notably David Gibbs of Portland (and our show), Liz Hickok, who makes cities and other large displays and is quite famous for it, and the Gowanus Studios in Brooklyn NY who have an annual show that is quite different and much younger than ours, but also inspired and inspiring.

You might be able to pick up a copy of the book I described in my last blog, Jell-O: A Biography, or look at the Maude Kerns Art Center archives for lots of photographs. They've been good about documenting at least the last few shows. Our videos might be on You-Tube, as they were shown on the community TV station, but my laptop is touchy these days and I can't watch any videos at the moment. There is, of course, the one made last year by Sean Cuellar of KEZI which is still watchable through their website.

So now you have no excuses for not "getting" the Jell-O Art Show, at least a surface view. It is, of course, a deeply transformative Rite of Spring and personal artistic experience unparalleled in the Art World, and I have written extensively on that in my previous blogs both here and at divinetension.blogspot.com, my personal blog which used to be about everything until I attempted to separate my Jell-O Art from my other pursuits. And my facebook page Gelatinaceae has photos, and will continue to provide updates to its miniscule group of followers.

Okay? Get busy. Do your research and start planning your Jell-O art piece. There are certainly some techniques yet to try, and some fun to be had. If you are one of those people who can still bear to eat the pretty and sweet stuff, go for it and try some recipes. The old ones are fascinating and all of the new techniques to make things like "Fluff" (just heard about that one last night) are fun to do and easy. We have a thing called the Tacky Food Buffet which is also an integral part of the show and a big attraction. The tables are emptied over and over and you would be amazed what our fans will try. Tacky Food does not have to include Jell-O or marshmallow peeps, in fact chocolate-covered Brussels sprouts were a popular item one year, and various aspics and molded salads containing tunafish are often spotted and consumed. It has to be fun, or tacky, which is pretty easy if you shop at any supermarket or look in any cookbook. Anyone can bring food for the Tacky Food Buffet, though it has to be edible and safely prepared, even though patrons know they eat at their own risk. Luckily Jell-O doesn't support many bacteria in its carefully prepared state. I have a hard time thinking of it as food, but I usually do prepare some for others who are more willing. People enjoy biting the heads off of religious figures made of red Jell-O, what can I say.

Jell-O Birthdays

More details: the Radar Angels are working on a theme and title for the 26th Annual Jell-O Art Show, and you will hear it here first. It's like stirring up a stew, getting the creative minds together. 

Monday was my son's birthday, so I celebrated by making Jell-O Art. I made my mom, Rita, a present for her 88th birthday, an experiment in mailing...I put a gelatin flower in a glass jar, packed it up, and we'll see how strong it is. I might have to repair it a bit next time I go. Jell-O Art maintenance is part of the art. Dusting, at minimum, so that's why the glass jar. I've been doing that recently, making it lower maintenance and maybe longer-lasting. 

I had the flower left over from the wedding; there were four of them, burgundy and purple, and they were quite nice, so I'm happy to be finding uses for them. I think she needed a new piece, as she has one of the first I made, years and years ago.

In the realm of technique, I forgot to tell people what to do if you forget to pry your drying gelatin out of the pan before it gets stuck. Simply moisten until it is pliable enough to unstick. I put a little water in there, swirl it around, and let it sit for 5-15 minutes. You can also try melting it in the microwave, only about 15 seconds or so should do it. Some of the pieces I had to rehydrate became delightfully stretchy, so should end up in some new shapes.

And the reason I order my pure gelatin online and don't use the packaged types, is that I use a lot of it. The bag in the photo holds about 4 pounds. You can certainly start with the Knox big boxes and tear open those envelopes. I did that for years. It's convenient, and if you are making edible or jiggly for the show you might just want to use it to thicken the Jell-O or Royal brand (and I always buy the Royal so it will continue to get shelf space.) Don't get too ambitious too soon, either, because moldy Jell-O smells terrible.

These big foot-square pieces of bluish grey are for the life-size heron I'm building. 

I used some net as a carrier and will moisten it when I make the shapes I want. It could go over the back to support wings. I'll need lots of layers so I just make a lot of large pieces, using the lids of plastic tubs or even plastic wrap on a table to pour out thin layers. It can be uneven. I think that is what causes some of the interesting distortions while drying.

 One great aspect of fabric backing is that you can sew it, or sew things to it. Accessories like as wings can be heavy.

 Okay! I'll keep you posted. Keep thinking about what  will be funny in this April Fool's Day. On March 29, to be exact.

Put a Jell-O Out Tonight! (1970)

People may not realize how often I quote Jell-O slogans. Over the one-hundred years plus of Jell-O brand, there have been many, and they are quite useful for laughs and inspiration for art. Even though there are months until the show (March 29, 2014!) you can start to play around with your medium, and that is on my list for today.

I mix my gelatin in a quart canning jar, filling it half full with COLD water. Room temp is fine, but don't make the mistake of using hot water, which I did for years and years, as it gets quite lumpy. The gelatin needs to bloom in the cold water (absorb water, basically) and after some minutes, five or ten, you can melt it. My current recipe is 6 ounces of dry gelatin powder for the 2 cups of water. That is really strong, and you can use less, so if you are using the Knox envelopes, start with making it about four times the box recipe, and experiment from there. The amount depends on the end use.

 I melt it in the microwave, but you could do it in a water bath or make the stuff in a saucepan if you like. Two minutes in the microwave should be more than enough, or one more, but then let it settle a little and it will get more clear. Skim off the foam and spread it on a plastic lid or dish for later use as seafoam or slime or throw it away, if you want. Divide the rest into smaller jars with dye, or get right into the big batch.

I vastly prefer making dried gelatin so that it lasts and I can do more with it over a longer stretch of time. It loses the jiggle, but you can add dye to make it any color you want, and the dried has a lot to recommend it. My next favorite method is using molds, and you can use most anything for a gelatin mold. I collect plastic items, especially if they have interesting textures or suggestive shapes (did you ever notice how the blister pack for light bulbs are boob-like?) but you can use anything you can get the gelatin out of. It gets pretty hard to move as it dries, sticking to the surface with great strength, so flexibility helps.

Decorative chain by David Gibbs

I generally pour the colored goo in thin layers (less than an eighth inch) in glass pie plates, etc., but be warned that it can pull chips of glass right off if it gets super dried, so you will not want to use the same dishes for food. Find a level spot for it to sit for a few minutes, and it will harden at room temp, so no need to juggle those dishes into your fridge. After a few hours of drying in a warm spot (on top of the piano for me) you can peel off the sheet, tear it up, and flip the pieces to dry further. It can take a couple of days or only one, depending on thickness.

You will want to play with the pieces to shape them and explore the stages it goes through, some flexible and even stretchy. You can re-hydrate it at any point, remelt it, start over, but it does get moldy if you make it too thick, don't flip it enough, or forget about it. You can pry it out of the molds intact if you do it at the right time, but small parts might break off. No problem: liquid gelatin makes a great glue (this is where the term glue factory comes in...) to stick the pieces back together, and this is how you make sculptures of various pieces. You have to prop them up or hold them together for a minute, and you can maybe break them apart later, but the glue is reliable for the most part. A one-ingredient art form!

By "unknown artist"

Message me, at dianemcwho@gmail.com, or on Facebook (I have a Gelatinaceae page as well as my own, Diane McWhorter) if you have more questions, but I will continue to go over some of these details again, as we all form our concepts and our art pieces. You will bring a piece to the show this year, right? I guarantee it will be a good one, the show that is, but your piece as well. Because, and you may not believe this at first, there is no bad Jell-O Art. There isn't a critical or evaluative structure for Jell-O Art, and you can believe we will not reject any pieces from our show, even if they look like a nude woman on a plate or include bullets. (I made a Jell-O AK-47 once, and there have been lots of boobs and derrieres.) We are Artists in the true mold!

Make art, and you are an artist. All the better if it is imbued with meaning and has scientific import, but the main concept we promote is FUN. Make some fun (1979). The quickest way to find a smile (1987.) Don't say no, say Jell-O (1975.) If you want to find more slogans, there is a great book called Jell-O: A Biography, written by Carolyn Wyman, that you can probably find somewhere. I just pulled out my copy, and the glossy surface is kind of flaking off a little, because maybe I spilled some gelatin on it. Or maybe, just possibly, Carolyn covered her book cover in gelatin. No, probably not, I suppose I spilled.

Violet, about 10 inches across

Oh, and if you want to do a favor for your Queen, I have dropped off the google pages for Jell-O Art, gelatin art, Jell-O artists, images, etc. I could barely find myself, and my Mom is telling people to look me up, so if you have some time, google around and click on me and my pieces, or David Gibbs' pieces, or anything but those gorgeous edible flower things or the moldy San Francisco. Usage is the same as importance online, so use me and get me back up into the popular zones. You will find amazing things out there, but you will probably find that Eugene's Jell-O Art is the longest running, the most advanced, and the very best Jell-O Art in the history of the world. We're in the book. We're up to something good (1985).

The Season of Jell-O Art

It's time to start back into Jelloland. I cleaned my workspace (the kitchen table) and started thinking about my piece for this year, and the emails have begun to circulate to get the group together. It is never the same two years in a row, and this will be the 26th show, with many new people involved. For the performers, the OCF is also part of the process, since the performances often merge at least slightly and the songs are sometimes almost the same.

For my art piece, I plan to work on the Great Blue Heron I started before the wedding last year, thinking I would make it a feature of the arch for the wedding couple and something fun to carry in their procession, but it was just as well that I abandoned the project because I don't think it would have ended up fitting into the real wedding as it took place. Many ideas were abandoned as logistics took over, and that is the way with the Jell-O Show too. Last year I was very ambitious and quite a few of the projects I started didn't make the show.

However, I am used to art and creativity going in many directions at once. It seems to take all of my skills put together to get any final results that are satisfying on lots of levels, and that is the richness of the process. When I was thinking to make steampunk things for the wedding, I went through all of the stuff in my stuff library (I collect all manner of odd objects and decorative elements for my many media: paper, gelatin, fabric, paint, ink, dye, and found-object sculpture, as well as other things like rusty metal.) I took some of it inside to look through as I made the hat ornaments, though I ended up using very little of it. Had to re-sort it and take it back out to my studio to re-file in my organizing system out there, but that is all part of the creative process for me.

I'm a visual learner, and have to see things spread out in front of me to get my ideas to coalesce. It looks like a mess to other people and undeniably takes up space. I resist putting up tables in my small spaces but sooner or later I do that, and then there is no more room for people or other tasks of daily life. For the first couple of weeks of the year I just sort things, put them away, and try to create space. This also helps me remember what I have and what projects I might have abandoned and forgotten.



When it comes to the actual making of Jell-O Art, the dried type I do takes a lot of lead time as the drying process takes a few days for each batch, so I will need to see what I made of the blue-gray pieces for the heron and what I may still need, and make a bunch of it. It's important to have a lot, as once I start to stick it together, it gets a lot smaller, and I am thinking of a life-size bird. My first plan is to make it look like it is taking off from a pool of liquid or slightly jelled jiggly stuff, so some of that will have to be last-minute in construction. Whatever I do will take a lot of planning, and being in the performance also means that I will not have a lot of time near the end, since we will be rehearsing and making props, etc., as well as distributing posters, getting interviewed on the radio, and all of the Queenly things I am supposed to do in my role.



I think whatever I am willing to do will be open to me, and greatly appreciated as well. The show is a fundraiser for the Maude Kerns Art Center, so we'll do some promoting coordination too. Last year I had a wonderful video opportunity which is still viewable at KEZI: http://www.kezi.com/turning-jell-o-into-art/ and I'm guessing that will not happen again in the same way, though I suppose if I can think of some way to put a new twist on it, I could get some coverage. Sean Cuellar was a great interviewer, did all the video herself, too, and she was very easy to work with.


There is also the Slug Queen connection. We always ask the Slug Queen to give a benediction at the start of the show, and each one brings her particular charms. Last year Queen Sadie knit some Jell-O, which was stupendous and didn't look nearly as amazing as it was in process, because Jell-O Art is subtle in it's presentation to those who haven't tried to work with it. This year the Slug Queen is an actual Scientist and Educator, not that all Queens and commoners don't have such talents, just not as much notice of them, but anyway, the possibilities are intriguing. She could do some spectacular demonstrations perhaps. If she gets all the attention I suppose I can live with it. I have been monopolizing as much attention as I could get for the last two years but this year I plan to fade into the background. Good thing the background is multicolored and full of pattern-mixing, like camo and tie-dye, so I will fit in.

In case you are new to the scene, try making some Jell-O soon and seeing what you can think of to do that will be fun for you. Some of the secrets include using the clear gelatin such as Knox, as it is more economical than the sugary edible chemicals that are Jell-O brand, and make it stronger than the package directions. I make mine anywhere from 4X to 12X the suggested ratio of gelatin to water. It will harden at room temp and you can add dye or food coloring or whatever you like (glitter, plant materials, Barbie doll heads) to make your meaningful art statement.

It has to be fun, that is the real only rule. I am allowed to be serious about it, and so are you, but only if being serious about your art includes enjoying it. How you can resist enjoying Jell-O Art, I do not know, but all of that is up to you.



 

Jell-O Art Still Fascinates

I continue to give out my photo cards featuring the dried gelatin mask I made in 2011, which looks gorgeous on the black background, and send people to this link, so I had better post now and then. I am currently not making any Jell-O Art, concentrating on my retail work with the upcoming Holiday Market in mind. That starts in November, after many weeks yet on the Park Blocks wishing for summer to come back. We will be outdoors through November 16, them moving to the Fairgrounds, indoors the weekend before Thanksgiving. 

I doubt I'll be retailing Jell-O Art again, though it was fun, as it was mainly a distraction from those types of work that actually sell well, like hats and tote bags. Even though I am happiest manipulating gelatin, and able to express my true soul through that open-ended medium, I'm not retired yet and still need to make money with my time. Traditionally I spend the months of the offseason after Christmas concentrating on the Jell-O Art world culminating in the annual Jell-O Art Show around April Fools Day. I hope that will be the case this year too. It will be the 26th Annual show.

I did successfully outfit the wedding party, and photos here show the Bride and Groom's Jell-O, and the decorated hat I wore. Lots of my family and friends wore the giant flowers on their heads or hats, and to me the Jell-O really made the wedding decorations, blending terrifically with the steampunky theme of the costumes. Kat and John did a wonderful job with all of the outfits, Kat sewing much of what people wore, including her fab dress. She's a keeper.

I abandoned the heron project outlined in my post from May. Lots of things changed between then and the wedding in July at the Oregon Country Fair. Perhaps I will make the heron for this year's show. I did make some lovely pieces of gray-blue feathery thin gelatin.

I discovered that one of my main practices, using glass plates and dishes to dry the gelatin, causes damage to the glass if you let the gelatin dry so long that it gets stuck and rigid. Little flakes and chunks of glass can break off. I bought new pie plates to use for edible things, and will no longer use the same dishes for eating and Jell-O Art. I hope my practices didn't cause problems for people. Be careful with glass, and with molten gelatin, which has burned me many times. You really don't want to spill liquid gelatin.

In other art news, the Eugene Saturday Market presents the Holiday Market Art Bag Project, which consists of 46 tote bags decorated by 46 artists (or more) to be given away on the first weekend of HM. The ones turned in so far are wonderfully individual in the styles of the artists and to us insiders they are recognizable and so desirable. I am having a lot of trouble deciding how to decorate mine. I've considered and rejected sewing some of my silk or cotton prints to the bag, even putting a hand-painted silk scarf on the bag, and I don't really want to hand-paint a tote bag. I am primarily a screenprinter, and I can do amazing things with a screenprinted bag, so I just have to draw something, make the screens, and get it done.

I have a list of ideas but settling on one is really tough. My neighbor has a gorgeous persimmon tree that is just beginning to turn the shades of oranges and yellows that are so glorious, but I have the peaches design which is quite similar, so I want to do something different. I like to draw plants from life, but the nature window is rapidly closing with all this rain and cold we are having. I need to choose something and get going. I'm leaning toward a vintage photo of the farmers' market, or something featuring giant fruits on a wagon, like the old postcards, but then again, it would be simpler to draw some blueberries or something. I will think of something soon!

So art is happening, just not much of it in the form of gelatin, though I still have a five-pound bag of it sitting in my kitchen waiting to be measured and melted. I am not tempted to fasten some of it to the tote bag, though. Sometimes it is just not possible to fully integrate everything into the same life. Unless...

Still Working

I've still been making Jell-O, just not any finished pieces since the porch Jell-O from my video. If you like watching science meet art meet fashion, here is someone else who does what I do, with a very different style.  
 http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/emily-crane-haute-edible-couture.

I wish I had her lab equipment. She apparently uses glycerin and other substances to make the foam stay bubbled...and I love the metallics, which I assume are cake decorating colors.

People have been wearing my Jell-O for several years now. What I am doing is far afield from her mostly foamy pieces. I mostly use the foam for slug lime. I like the glossy surfaces that result from using glass to dry the gelatin on.

Mostly I'm constructing large flowers, of which you have already seen a plethora, in order to decorate a collection of steampunky hats for my son's wedding in July. My entire family is coming from thousands of miles away for the weekend, so I told them rather than trying to bring costumes, they can just choose from my collection. Perhaps some of the hats will make it to next year's Jell-O Show.

I'm also making a big (three feet tall?) Great Blue Heron as part of an arch or something for them to stand near or under during their ceremony. I will just build it around a curvy stick and try to keep it light enough that it can be carried in their procession. Should be no problem. I already have an eagle about that size, and probably both of them will make it to the wedding.

Making big pieces is a little more challenging than small, because they distort more in the drying, but I just use plastic lids from large tubs to pour out the gelatin and shape the pieces. You have to peel it off and flip it over to dry on the other side, several times, so there are lots of chances to ruin it or make it more interesting, depending on your perspective. I generally just make a lot of pieces in the colors I am using (blues, grays and purples in this case) and then assemble them into the desired sculpture.

Hot sunny weather is pretty good for drying Jell-O although there are more pieces of dust and fluff and debris from sitting outside, which could be limited somewhat by letting it dry inside until it has hardened sufficiently to not pick up pieces of wind-blown detritus. In the winter with the heat on, drying is not a problem, but I have also discovered the top of the water heater and the TV as hot spots, and I suppose the top of the refrigerator would be good too if it were not as dusty as mine.

You want the gelatin to dry within maybe 48 hours so it doesn't have a chance to mold. I try to keep it as thin as I can, maybe an eighth of an inch thick, or less. If you don't like the shape it ends up in, remember you can get it wet and in a few minutes it will return to a flexible state, so you can reshape it and try again. You can remelt it in the microwave, too, though not if it has fully hardened.

But go ahead and try whatever you want. Art is nothing if it doesn't include some experimentation at some stage. I like it when I am forced to adapt to what the gelatin wants to do. Except the mold part.

And if you don't feel like reading back for instructions, I use 3 ounces of gelatin per cup of water. You can succeed with a lot less (this would be, I think, 12 envelopes of Knox per cup of water) so you don't have to start with such a dense formula, but my theory is that this is a good level for durability and strength, so your wonderful constructions will be sturdy enough to transport or wear.

I just add procion dyes for color, as I have a lot of them around from dying fabrics. You can use anything that you like for color. You can get creamy colors with added milk, though I try to stay away from foods to keep the ants uninvolved. Cake colorings would work. The little four-pack food colorings are perfect if you don't mind the limited colors, and you could also add Jell-O brand if you like, though it has too many chemicals for me, and I have found that it shortens the life span of the art. Just gelatin and water and as little else as possible is best for saving the pieces without dulling or decomposition.

They do get dusty. I like putting really nice pieces under glass, so now I am collecting large glass containers as well. My house does have a unique look.

Back to flipping pieces. See you with some pictures soon!

You've Never Made Jell-O Art?

Classic piece from 2009

What? We've been going for 25 years and you haven't made any Jell-O yet? Perhaps you don't realize how easy it is.

Relax, you still have two weeks (minus one day) until March 30 when you will be bringing your piece to Maude Kerns Art Center and declaring yourself to be a Jell-O Artist.

Easter is usually a good back-up theme

Go get that box from the cupboard, because I'm guessing you at least have a box of Lime for that family reunion. See how complicated they make it? It is actually basic: gelatin plus water, and the more gelatin, the firmer it gets.

Book made of dried gelatin sheets

Try getting a box of clear Knox brand, which contains 32 envelopes, each containing about 1/4 ounce of gelatin. Then add some extra to the Jell-O brand, to make the traditional Jigglers-type edible stuff, a little firmer than usual, still retaining a bit of jiggle, but more stable at room temperature.



Try a few things, like pouring it into non-traditional molds, anything that will hold liquid and allow you to pry the firm gelatin out. The firmer stuff is easy to get out of molds, holds its shape, and will allow some shaping techniques, like carving.

Some advanced technique and great use of props

Then try a few more things. Make it really, really thick, and as soon as you are comfortable, abandon the Jell-O brand with all of its sugar and chemicals, and use just the pure gelatin. Color it with whatever you have I use dyes, because I have a lot of them around. I also buy gelatin in 25 pound lots on the internet, but you can stick with the Knox until you get a lot more ambitious.

Closeup of a dried piece almost ten years old

One thing that differs with the clear gelatin is that you want to dissolve it by stirring it into cold water, not hot. Let it bloom in the water for about ten minutes, and then melt the stuff in the microwave or on the stovetop. Skim off any foam and throw it away (or use it to decorate your sculpture.) You can remelt the gelatin numerous times until it gets moldy or too stiff.

Wet gelatin will last a few days, so you will want to wait until the week of the show to make your final project, but that still gives you a week to experiment. 

Looked like a good plan...

I work in mostly dried gelatin at this point, because I like the illusion of control and the permanence of the results. Once dried it resembles plastic and lasts for decades. I fill a quart canning jar half full of water and add 6 ounces of gelatin. That makes a very stiff formula that I pour in thin layers in pie plates and cake pans for a glossy surface. Then as it dries I peel it out, tear and cut it into shapes, and turn and tend it for a day or two until it gets dry. There are various stages of flexibility in the process, and again, you can wet it and remelt it and start over.

You can't predict the results!

I glue my dry pieces together with molten gelatin. It's very strong and I have found a million ways to use it as an art material.





But I advise starting with the jiggly kind. It's fun, it's easy, it will clean up off your floor and counters eventually, and let me testify that playing with art, particularly something as beautiful and delightful as Jell-O Art, is highly liberating.

Let your Jell-O Artist out!

i-Jell-o

Your Jell-O Art Queen is thrilled to report that we have a theme!  i-Jell-o

 
We even have a slogan: From the Me Generation to the iGeneration.

Think about it, everyone is tuning out from violence and global climate change and wiring into themselves with their iDevices.... Instead of more human connection, which is one of the only known ways to successfully transcend hatred and violence, we have an entire generation tuned into iThings.

Perhaps they are even hooked into the chemical slush that passes for food these days: extruded chemical blends that have a pleasing enough mouth feel to go down easy and the right secret sauce. DON'T YOU KNOW THAT STUFF IS KILLING YOU?

Okay, no one wants to hear another rant on the way those late icons Twinkies and Ding Dongs used to be real cake and how good they used to taste. Jell-O, in contrast, has always been made from calf hooves and other offal (mostly hides, apparently.)  It has never been food in a classic sense of something grown and gathered. It is made from a process. So we will be exploring process.

And in the process something is lost. Imagine if someone, say a Radar Angel, came back after say, twenty-five years, imagine how shocked and appalled they might be at the temperature change, the near end of the world, the death of the iconic Hostess Cakes, and the way the modern young person seems to be wired up to a silent transmitter while hooked up to a silent killer that passes for food. 

It's Too Darn Hot! People are slurping down melted Jell-O, with vodka, no less, and because it is easy, they don't even notice they have stopped eating food. The Radar Angels and Jell-O Art to the rescue!

Your Queen will stop here with the fantasy scenario of what backstory lies behind the theme, because like all good Jell-O Show themes, this one was chosen from a brilliant brainstorm of dozens of great ideas and connections, and it is open to your interpretation. You are the artist, remember that. I expect a grand range of interpretation that far surpasses even my ridiculous imagination.

The actual show and performance may diverge wildly from the said theme  by the time March 30 2013 rolls around. I'm not even one of the people who usually takes the theme from concept to comedy but this year I got to take notes at the brainstorm and it was really, really hot. People just stripped down to their wings and their Wonder Bread wrapper underwear and we didn't even have time to finish the wine and hummus.

Since there are people working on performance now, all you have to worry about is making your Jell-O, and of course bringing it to the show. You are free to interpret the theme in any fashion that appeals to you, or to totally ignore it and bring the Jell-O you had planned, or the result of your plans if they go a bit south.

I myself had something totally unrelated in mind, but the way my mind works is dependable, and I already found a little angle from the theme to my piece. That little dotted vowel is so pervasive in life that it has a plethora of facets worth mining and metaphors worth mixing.

So go out there and buy your gelatin (you can actually find non-Kraft gelatin out there to bolster up your iScore in the iCompetition toward iPurity of iNtention). 

This is going to get old quickly, isn't it? Keep it fresh for me, won't you?

In other Jell-O art news, I took a plastic box full of fascinators back East for party wear (my Mom looked utterly stunning in one) and on the way back my suitcase got hijacked for underplane storage when I had planned to carry it. 

I totally forgot my priceless Jell-O Art in its vulnerable top pocket, and sure enough, the plastic tote didn't hold up. At first it looked like every piece was smashed, but when I got over my hearbreak enough to fix them, I discovered that while nearly every piece had lost a petal or a leaf, they had broken at the joined parts. Within a few minutes, all were good as new! That stuff is strong. 

Structural, even. So that works into my idea, which may or may not involve walls, and my other idea is knitted Jell-O. Yo, Sadie! Let's see if it can be done.  The iWorld needs iSalvation. Or iSalivation. Or iSomething. You work on it. I have to start covering my kitchen with newspaper and filling all my furniture with piles of gelatin projects. It's Open Season on Jell-O!

Wait, we're trying not to use violent language. The non-competitive joyfest that is the Jell-O art peak season has opened for all!                         U-Jell-O too.

Finished My Piece!

Here is an inadequate picture of my Jell-O Art. The base is about a foot square and the leaves extend out in all directions, making the thing about the size of a two foot cube.

It's a book, a book about my life as a Jell-O artist. The first page is titled Jell-O Art and gives sort of an introduction, and the following pages are about the Radar Angels, the creative process, metamorphosis, and other things that are significant to my artistic experience.

A few of the pages are printed, which as far as I know is a new technique to our group. I just did them with existing screens since making new screens is still very difficult with my broken foot. The fractal one hangs off the back and is drooping a bit much, but we'll see how it curls, since random effects are usually fine. The tree page needs something more behind it but I need to be finished with piece. I drew and collaged a bird on it, and since customers are constantly telling me that tree is the Tree of Life that is what it represents. I seldom argue with my customers. If I were ambitious and had more time I would probably add more creatures to it. I might just do that because I'm not quite satisfied with it the way it is. I tried making one more leaf to put behind it with a collaged fish on it, but it just didn't fit right.

I printed the word Imagine as well and wanted to print a few more of my hat images, such as fear less and YES and those would be great, but the screens were hard to find and I ran out of shop time. I probably could manage doing those without an assistant but now it is wet outside and although I just crutched my way out there to get something I needed, it seems like too much effort to go out there again for such small details to add to what is essentially a finished piece.

I know I have a tendency to amass too many images and as you can see from the picture there are many layers and this will be a piece you really will have to study from all sides to fully experience. The photograph presents a sad mishmash of what is an elegant and intensely meaningful piece. The greatest piece of Jell-O Art ever made! I wish.

The rest of the pages are hand lettered with markers and drawing pens and I hope the colors don't turn out to be fugitive. This piece might have to be stored in a box for long-term life. I poured some clear gelatin into the bottom of the box, which is just a plexiglas picture frame I found in a drawer, so the piece might transmit light from below for an interesting effect. I took some flowers off of last year's dress (intending someday to restore it to the simplicity of Celeste's original conception) and put them in there, added a flower and a shell from my current retail stock, and some grass from another part of last year's piece.

I asked Maude Kerns management if I could display and (hopefully) sell my retail Jell-O Art at the show this year along with the t-shirts. It hasn't been the case that any individual's art has been for sale during the show, so it might not even work, but my medical bills are frightening and I don't know when I will have a regular income again. June I guess.

I researched physical therapy for this kind of break (calcaneus and part of the ankle) and it turns out that although I will be able to put weight on my foot after twelve weeks of rest, that doesn't mean that I will be able to walk. I'll still need crutches and eventually a cane and will have to rebuild the muscles of my leg and convince my brain that it is safe to put the foot down and use it. That means another month or two of hard going. Since my main income is from the grueling 12-hour day of Saturday Market and the screenprinting I do standing up, I'm not going to be fully back to work for a really long time. So now's your chance to collect a little piece of some really unique Eugene history, the living, breathing, quarter-decade old Jell-O Art Show, and to support a local artist who needs your cash.

I will of course gladly accept your admiration if you don't want to own a collector's item or a fairly useless but gorgeous piece of gelatin made permanent. I understand living simply and not accumulating stuff. I do hope you take a good look at my piece though. I'd be glad to talk technique and give tips to other artists who want to try the dried stuff. It's much more simple than it looks.

Even if it did take me twenty-five years to make it. See you at the show! Don't blink and miss it!

Wow!

Today was the thrilling illustration of the creative process which keeps me so engaged in life and Jell-O art. Back in December when I heard myself telling someone you couldn't even make flat dried gelatin, and that little smile took the corners of my mind, I set this part in motion.

Today I actually screenprinted on it. I know there aren't very many people working in gelatin art, practically none in fact, but I am fairly certain that this is a technique that no one has tried. It's hard to express the satisfaction of pulling it off.

I owe a huge thanks to the intrepid Radar Active, aka Indi, who came over today to give me a couple of hours so I could try my first day back in the shop. I thought I would sort some shirts and maybe get ready to print them tomorrow when another friend is coming, but the shirts went fast (actually were a print of a design F.A.S.T. for a local school program) and before you could blink I printed up three scraps of really flat Jell-O trimmed from the pages I cut last night for my book project. Indi was as excited as I am even as she firmly insisted that I stop and go put my foot back up on its elevated pillow.

They look amazing. They curled up a little so I'll have to flatten them (Indi suggested putting them between sheets of waxed paper which shouldn't stick to them, not that they are wet). They will add color to the project which I was thinking I would hand letter mostly in black sharpie although now that I think of it, I do have some colored sharpies somewhere.

I'm still all giddy. I got the t-shirt design more-or-less finished, not the best one I've ever done, but I bought some pink camo shirts to print it on, which look like pink lemonade Jell-O with swirls of cool whip. The other ones are grey, because I'm only doing a one-color print so I don't have to use white shirts to achieve good Jell-O colors. They were a little expensive, but perhaps this year I will insist on selling them instead of giving most of them away. Seems like after years of free shirts some people might be able to part with some bucks for my considerable medical bills. I hope so.

But they will all get to see my innovative, fabulous printed Jell-O for free. It's impressive.

And yeah, my foot does hurt a bit. It was totally worth it, though.

Experiments

When I heard myself telling someone it was impossible to make flat dried gelatin I heard myself accept a new challenge. Sometimes I think I have tried everything...but there's always somewhere else to go.

As a screenprinter, I have a surplus of old screens and have used them to make paper, which works admirably to make smooth flat sheets. I tried it with Jell-O, which is of course way more liquid than paper pulp, so presented some extra problems.

I leveled and covered a card table, first trying just a sheet of plastic and then deciding to pad it with cardboard and newspaper for a more resilient surface. The screen is a wood frame with polyester fabric stretched on it, and most of my old ones are a bit warped and the fabric slightly loose, so I thought I would weigh down the frame to press the fabric tightly against the plastic to keep the gelatin from flowing out the sides.

That resulted in the gelatin staying on top of the screen instead of under it, between it and the plastic, so I took off the weights and created more space under the screen. It seems that the thickness of the gelatin is crucial and will take some control. Part of the reason it doesn't dry flat is the difference in thickness and subsequent drying time. I took a plastic scraper and tried to remove all the gelatin from one side of the fabric, leaving a thin flat plate of it on the other side.

One I dried with the sheet of plastic peeled off, and one with it left in place. When it is left in place the gelatin won't dry, but my best case scenario would have been for the gelatin sheet to adhere to the plastic and not the screen, for easy removal. Ha ha. I was amazed to find that this worked on one piece, when I happened to hit the exact time it was ready, and carefully peeled it from the fabric. This did result in a few stretched places where it was still too wet.

Over a few days I tried many variations on the process and discovered that releasing the gelatin from the fabric was the biggest problem. If I gently misted the underside with water, I could get some of the gelatin to peel off the fabric, if I tried at the exact right stage of softness. This did result in some distortion with the final drying of the piece. I kept trying different things and made a lot of interesting discoveries.

I got one pretty flat, pretty smooth piece about a foot square (the top picture.) It's uneven in thickness and some parts are glossier than others, but it's flat and it's thin. The picture doesn't show it that well, since I tried to use a low angle to show the flatness. I'm going to try printing something on it with screenprinting ink for my next development.

That's right, I'm going to make printed Jell-O! This is quite exciting.

The problem will be controlling the amount of ink and getting a good print with no chance of do-overs. I'll probably find an old Radar Angels t-shirt image to use for the experiment. I visualize selling gelatin sheets instead of shirts, since no one really wears most of the shirts from the past. That's one of those ideas that will not fly, of course, but if I went to the trouble of shadow-boxing the art and making it into a high-value product, I'll bet it could be some actual fine art. Mayor's show, here I come.

When the gelatin did pull off the fabric, it took a faint image with it of whatever had been in the screen originally. The gelatin seemed to pull out the traces of ink that were left in what is called the ghost image. On the pink pieces this came out as an interesting texture kind of like fish skin, mottled spots. There were also interesting bubbles from spraying with water and not smoothing out the drops.

I tried to find more deliberate designs to use, by using a screen that still had the stencil on it, but while I did get some small areas of pattern, the release problems were worse with the partially stenciled pieces. You can kind of see the fractal pattern on the purple pieces, kind of a wavy watery pattern to begin with.

This would more properly be described as embossed, which of course is easy to do by just putting the gelatin on a textured surface, but it opens some possibilities too. I have hundreds of screens with lots of interesting designs and textures on them. File notes in "pending uses."

The flat gelatin is the most exciting thing I have come up with so far this year. I had been wanting to combine papermaking and printing with Jell-O art in new ways, and this is a step forward into new territory. Just a small step with no clear direction, but yay!

Jell-O Show 2012

Hurray! The date has been set and the theme chosen for this year's Jell-O Art Show. It will be at Maude Kerns Art Center as usual, on a Saturday night from 5-8 pm as usual, but unlike the past two years, it will not be the first Saturday in April! It will be March 31, which seems like divine intervention for this Saturday Market vendor.

Now I won't have to try to do way too much in one day. The Jell-O Show is already a very big day. Not only do I "have to" make some kind of remarkable personal piece, I like to make lots of tacky foods for the Tacky Food Buffet, and I also enjoy helping decorate the hall and assist the performers if needed. In addition I make and sell the t-shirts, and they have to be brilliant, which is a big project all in itself. March is always very busy, particularly that last week.

I might even make some jiggly Jell-O for my display this year. I love the dried and will certainly do something with it, but the jiggle is a big part of the fun too. The wet Jell-O is such a frustrating and bewitching art material that I kind of miss it.

The theme is Occupy/End of the World for 2012. That should be a fascinating merge and I can just picture the Radars rolling a giant Mayan calendar replica out onto the stage and puzzling over it like the apes from the planet. (I would even be willing to help make the replica, if any Radars are reading this.) We could build it out of protest signs and turn it around into the Occupy mode. I'm sure the performers are already making lists of songs to parody and thinking about apocalyptic costumes. It's the Jell-Occupyocalypse. Cue the bongos.

Lots of us Radar Angels are political activists or were in the past at least, and are still radicals, so it will be a fun opportunity to add our humor to the political discourse. Political Jell-O can be tedious and derivative and repetitious and plebian just like any other kind of political art, and I have done my part in making political Jell-O. I once used an AR-15 (AK-47-looking rifle) to make a mold to put in a coffin surrounded by flowers and Jell-O bullets and clips and had a whole thing going about burying violence. I dressed the mannequin legs in camo.

Speaking of the mannequin legs, I had my doubts when I used them in last year's sculpture, Hope. I need them back. This winter I started taking parts of the display and putting them to other purposes. The mask can stand on its own, as can the bird. The floral panels look great on the walls of my living room, and the little seascapes with grass and waves are presently being made into little mermaid perches. The figure itself, which I appropriated glibly from Celeste, might be restored to its original condition, though the additional snakeskin will probably stay on it. For it to be a part of the Jell-O Art Museum, it should really be in its original condition, which was elegant and graceful. Hard to dance covered with orchids. So Hope will be transformed. That's the theme of the beginning of the movement.

The Jell-O Art Museum concept is alive and well and I am designing a sign for it and have in mind to build a scale model of it. I probably won't be making either one out of gelatin though I will try to work that in. I don't know how much of it will be realized in the short winter period I have for Jell-O Art.

I also don't know where I am going with the Jell-O Art retail I tried last season. It wasn't a failure, and had lots of fun aspects that could continue to develop, but it's pretty distracting at Market and cut into my clothing sales I believe. At HM it was kind of cluttered. I don't know what to do with it. Last night I dreamed I was eating all of the shells and flowers, and they were nearly all gone when I realized it. Not that I would, but it was funny as a dream. Apparently I want to be done with them. Maybe it just means I am hungry for transformation.

Make some Jell-O, artists! At least start thinking about it.

Slug Art Walk!

The Slug Queen's Slug Art Show opens today at 200 West Broadway. It will be on the Art Walk. Of course there will be Jell-O Art!

I named this piece The Queen Slug. It's about a foot long with the slime and roses. It will be dwarfed by the amazing lime green lit-up floor slug and other items I didn't get to see, but the show will be up for a couple of weeks I hope. This is another show from the Eugene Storefront Art Project which is a very happening group of folks with a fabulous idea that has really improved the downtown. They are actually running out of venues as the properties are improved, so let them know if you have ideas for expanding their programs. And support them! I will have little slugs for sale there, to benefit them, so take one home. You know you want some Jell-O Art of your very own. And kowtow to the Old Queens for me as I won't be able to be there. I'm crushed that I will have two pieces of my art in galleries on the premier gallery street in our town on what might be the best Art Walk of the season! Maybe my absence will just fuel the mystery.

I was working on this as a cake decoration but just couldn't resist gluing on a hairband. It looks amazing on top of my head and it might be one of those I just can't seem to part with.

I also made a couple of new roses which apparently I didn't photograph, so see them at Market on the 15th or at Tuesday Market on the 18th. Only three Tuesdays left in the season, and it looks like we will be back across the street co-selling with the farmers for the rest of the season. Get out and enjoy the great fall weather we are so lucky to have.