Restorative Jell-O

I restored Celeste's dress. Seemed like something I needed to do before moving along into this year's Jell-O Art. I pried off the excess of orchids and leaves that I stuck on there when I appropriated it for my 2011 sculpture. It looks magnificent in its simplicity and now it will get a corner of the Jell-O Art Museum in the full glory of itself.

I settled on a plan for this year's work, something I have been thinking about for a couple of years. I will do a miniature version of the Jell-O Art Museum (plan subject to change, of course...remember what happened to my well-laid plans last year when I broke my heel.)

So I interpreted Celeste's dress in miniature. Loosely interpreted, I should say. I plan to do this for as many of the famous Jell-O Art pieces as I can. It's a cute trick in many cases, and I love the scale of it.

It's a classic move to use Barbies or Barbie-size props in Jell-O Art. Her iconic being lends herself perfectly to the perverted kitschy kitchen-art aspects of using Jell-O for art, adding a layer of metaphor and familiarity, especially for those whose feminist thinking developed around Barbie's warped highheel feet and waspy waist. She's perfect for an apron, another iconic Jell-O Art object (say that with a French accent, please.)

My Barbie stand-in came apart years ago after I tried to get her out of a bath of Jell-O suds that had started to rot. You do not want to memorize the smell of rotten Jell-O, but it is an inevitable part of the total experience.


So anyway, I like using this artist's model that is about the same size. I have a Barbie dressing table and that jewelry case I found last month is on that scale too. I have a lot of photos of Jell-O of the past, and think I can make some recognizable replicas. I'm excited. And that is really the point of all this.

Jell-O Research

In case you need inspiration, there's Jell-O all over the internet. Here's just the kind of Sunday morning show we dream of seeing ourselves on...except for the part about the edible stuff, ick.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7389706n 

The Gowanus Studios shows are on their site, and there are hundreds of links about Liz Hickock, who is fabulous. My blog will come up, and we have a few of our images still popping up in google searches, but you might be amazed how much is out there, and also how much is missing. If you can spell Gelatinaceae, you will find all kinds of me.

Why Jell-O?

Be assured, I will be providing lots of tips and tricks as we get closer to the Jell-O Show, but really, Jell-O Art is very simple: it all happens with you, in the privacy of your kitchen, where you cannot make any mistakes.

I don't mean you have to be careful, I mean that the nature of the Jell-O Art world is that anything goes. There are no rules. There is no good or bad Jell-O Art, though that does not prevent the mightly artist ego from trying to dominate...maybe that is where you (I) need to work.

The idea is that Jell-O is such a ridiculous medium, so impossible to manage, so clunky to finesse, so resistant to technique, that it can be high art: all self expression. It's something familiar, easily transformed, magical.

There is no critical structure, no evaluating, no rejection and no financial value...it is pure fun. 

The substance itself, its clarity and brilliance, its intense color and seductiveness, will lead you to a place of joy and you just have to follow. 

So put on your apron and free yourself! Jell-O is not food, in our Jell-O Art universe. It is symbolic, representative, evocative, liberating, creative force in action. It's deep play.

At least that is what I have deduced from 25 years of indulging  myself in this media. I consider Jell-O Art to be what made me a "capital A" Artist. Through it I discovered my creative process, my blocks, my fears, my strengths, and my challenges.

My personal creative process goes like this: Start in January, if not sooner. Think about the theme, if there is one, and how it might relate to me. My pieces are almost always self-referential in obvious ways: whatever I did in the past year, and am presently creating, comes to play in my Jell-O.

I bring all of my gathered life-skills with me. Paper-making, screenprinting, cooking, chemistry, sculpture, painting, calligraphy, sewing, you name it: it all works into my piece at some point.

Whomever left this on the roadside must have seen me coming.

So in the beginning I try to stay open, and broad, and just take a blank sheet of paper and start listing every word or phrase that comes to mind. I start to scan my world for things or images that resonate. I shop a little, usually at the Goodwill or library, looking for things that relate, and amuse me. Old Jell-O recipes, images from its 100-year plus history, (I have the book "Jell-O, a Biography" which includes some stuff about our very show) and odd items land on my kitchen counter and my brain makes its vague connections.

At the same time I mix up some gelatin and make something. I might try out a mold I found, or make some flat sheets like I did last year, or some pieces of a particular color. These just get me into the process. I like to leave myself starting places to come back to, so I don't get stuck.

Gradually over the three winter months my ideas coalesce and magic happens. The t-shirts come at the end when my ideas are as ready to transmit as possible, and the show is fairly pinned down. Still, it doesn't happen until it happens, and that three-hour show is the real art piece. It's about way more than the Jell-O for me.

That's some of the thinking behind the scenes, and I'll tell more. You will be happy to know that the performance is in process and has already diverged wildly from any original concept that might have existed in someone's mind. The group creative process of writing the show is quite similar to mine, but multiplied and extrapolated and collaborative and quite wonderful.

My individual role as Queen will be doing a lot of promotion, a lot of assisting, set creation, throwing out clever one-liners, enriching the fiction, stuff like that. It seems that I will also be on stage, but from now on I will try to say very little about the content of the show...it's better if it's a surprise, and that you have to be there to make it happen.

It will be hilarious, there is no doubt of that. It will be HOT! And so cool. It will be so much colorful brilliance and movement your head will spin and your neural pathways will open and you will be forever changed. This is Jell-O Art. 

So get yourself some Knox brand in the big box. It costs about $9 now I think, though I buy plain gelatin 25 pounds at a time on the internet for about $8 a pound. Mix up a few packets anywhere from 4 to 12 times stronger than the directions (more gelatin, less water.) I usually use 3 oz gelatin per cup of water, as I have been working mainly in dried gelatin for the last few years. Add some color with whatever you have. I use procion dyes because I have a lot of them around, and food coloring is too limited for me.

Mix it in cold water, stir and let it bloom for ten minutes, then melt it in the microwave or on the stove. Then you can pour it in molds, or for the dried gelatin variety, pour it in dishes in layers about 1/8" thick. If you are letting it dry, peel it from the pans and flip it to dry both sides, experimenting with its qualities at various stages. 

Experiment with your medium. It is supposed to be fun. Amuse yourself. Play!

That's all for now. There will be more. You have some time to let it percolate in your brain and soul and heart, because that is where the groove is. Find your groove. Dance.

Groove is in the heart-art-art-art-art....

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.

Moldy Jell-O White House is Topical

I'm so sorry, Jell-O Art fans, but I just haven't been able to make any Jell-O in the longest time. A couple of weeks ago I had more surgery, this time to take the metal out of my poor right foot, which made for several more weeks of sitting with the foot propped up and no mobility. It all went fine and is almost healed up again, but now Holiday Market is about to start and I doubt I will pick up the Jell-O again until January.

 It's sad, but that's the way life goes. Things get in the way of other things. January through April is the traditional time for Jell-O and I'm sure when the time is right I will find the thrill again. 

In the meantime, go here and see some excellent photos of masterful gelatin sculpture by Liz Hickock. She has much more fame and a much more substantial budget than I do, and I admire her and her work very much. After you admire, make sure to google Jell-O Art and click on some images of mine, so I will mount in internet fame and not lose any more ground. Maintainingfame is not so simple, and requires a lot of effort.

One piece I did manage to complete was of an orchid and butterfuly inside a glass jar, which was a nice way to package the stuff so it can sit on a shelf without getting dusty. I used some of the leftover pieces from my book construction to make the wings and other parts and it was quite lovely. This I gave to the wonderful George Filgate who took the charming photos of me and my Jell-O.

Of course as you can see, photos don't really do justice to Jell-O sculpture, certainly not the photos I take in my kitchen with no preparation. Still, it was a fun piece to make and it looked quite lovely in its jar.

Hope you all are making your Jell-O without my encouragement, and  I promise to let you know as soon as I start back into the process. 

Quick Update

And from April to August I made no Jell-O! With my broken foot, I found it challenging enough to keep up with the work of healing and making my Saturday Market/Country Fair retail work. My trays of brilliantly colored petals and leaves sat and gathered dust in my project room, and most of the Jell-O Art Museum was packed away. 

But then I was invited to be a Celebrity Judge for the 30th Annual Slug Queen Competition! I was invited in my celebrity persona, the Queen of Jell-O Art, and thus I entered into a mad dash to costume myself appropriately for the occasion and do my best to promote the silliness. I will add to it by my very presence!

My costume is red and black and I had a new apron custom-made to enhance my look. I re-borrowed the magnificent cape and embellished my crown with yet more Jell-O in the form of a gigantic slug sculpture that had apparently been made for this purpose as it fit perfectly atop my head.

There will be many pictures, you can be sure. It will be a grand occasion and even though I am not the focus, not at all, it is still a huge 15 minutes of fame for me.

I made two public appearances yesterday, in costume. One was at breakfast for my dear friend Pamela, where because I am too cheap to figure out a present that doesn't involve Jell-O Art or t-shirts (and she is expressly forbidden to accept any more tote bags) and many in the young crowd were dazzled by my regal presence. Who doesn't admire ruffles and shiny things? 

The other was a brief sojourn down to Seven Stars Childcare where the children are not phased by me by now, having had many Jell-O Art visits over the years. I went in search of better socks (alas, my still-not-finished foot requires padding and really carefully chosen shoes) as Deb is the source of most of my really cool socks, and I came back with crinolines, which I badly needed to hide my bike shorts which will serve as a slip. 

I am not naturally very glamorous, as you might have guessed from my choice of town, Eugene, which is at best a casually dressed small city. I had to go buy mascara and look into the Halloween stuff for lipstick (will fake blood work?). I'm not going to get very far into it, as I tried out the lipstick and looked far more like a clown than a Queen. Don't want to confuse anyone. But I found the right socks, and will wear a smidge of eye shadow I suppose, if I can manage to get it all together in time.

So tonight, at the Park Blocks, I will be very showy and you will want to see the show. As far as I know I will not be called upon to display any talent or wit but you never know what the occasion might bring. I may be castigated for upstaging an Old Queen or two, but I hope to mollify them with my Jell-O Art slugs of which I have made quite a few new ones. I made a lot of roses too and might give some of those to the lucky winner and her court, or not.

Who knows how it will go? I confess I have a favorite (come on, she knit her whole costume! It took over a year!) , but will remain as objective as possible  until the moment I cast my vote. (I also find other candidates intriguing.) There are seven candidates, quite excessive sliminess, so it should be a wonderful show. I plan to appear to be rapt the entire time as I fidget with my costume details and wonder whether or not to take a pain pill when no one is looking at me. My foot, my foot. 

Come down to the Park Blocks with your lawn chair! You will laugh your socks off if you wear any. You will go home lighter unless you decide to try the Slug Trap. If you have any questions about the history, etc., the Slug Queens have a very well-written website. Join me for my most glorious moment for which I actually had a chance to prepare! 

You will not be disappointed. Unless you are one of those people who looks around on Christmas morning and wonders if that is all there is. Keep looking, if you are. There is almost always one more present somewhere, under some leaf, in some garden. 

And of course there is always Jell-O Art, which by it's very nature, can not disappoint. 

Our Swag and Other Things We Deem Cool

We love our crown, scepter and bouquet so much! Leave it to women artists (and a few men) to always perform brilliantly whenever called to anything.

The multi-talented Kariana Diana Supreme (in her more sedate life, Karen Perkins, retired art teacher recently famous for speaking for student artists everywhere in the face of the misguidedly patriotic/irrational complaints about using The Flag in a mural. Excuse me: Art! Embrace the concept) made our crown and we love the brilliant use of romex cable to form the ring which fits any (even a swelled) head and is comfortable and adjustable in aspect. She even put dried Jell-O on it for feather-and flower-like decoration and the attached emptied boxes and copper-wire boingies plus fabric flowers are artfully arranged in perfect framing. It's as if it were designed for our silver head (but of course it was!)

We're particularly grateful for the romex idea because now we realize it is perfect for mounting those Jell-O wings so that they can be more easily worn. Wrap with ribbon, et voila! Thank you Karen, for this treasure we will probably wear rather more often than might be advised. We had to be reminded to take it off when we got home but it is close at hand for any state occasions which might arise if we do.

The bouquet is similarly inspired for long life and uses perfectly planned contrasting wrapping paper and ribbon, with a plethora of box blossoms, including the sought-after Royal brand gelatin whose lettering works perfectly for our additional "Royalty" page in the book, allowing us to only have to fake one letter. There are lots of details made with pipe cleaners and beads and we love the way it uses space and is again boingie which is about as jiggly as you can get with paper. We love it!

The scepter also features the empty box (Cherry, presumably to signify our eternal virginity and purity, set off with bright red spangles to refer to our flapper era) and some lovely silk flowers appropriately vintage in appearance for contrast and in homage to our advanced but never faded mature beauty. We always say that women grow more attractive with each passing year and we love the subtle shadings of the silk and the hidden bird which we identify as a Bewick's wren, a bird that has brought much pleasure as we watch it look for insects in the crumpled bark of the butterfly bush outside our essential chairside window. The scepter cleverly uses recycled materials such as a CD on the back which can double as a mirror to check our make-up if we ever form the habit of wearing any, which is of course unlikely at this point. If there were a time when we should have had some on, it would have been Saturday night, but as it happens Larry had quite enough on for several Angels and we seemed to glow and blush most adequately without it. And we love the blue and gold polka-dotted ribbon decorating the (what? We can't just call it a stick) holding apparatus and the clever spool at the bottom. All beaded and ribboned of course. Any number of the actual graphic artists and multi-media artists in our midst could have crafted these items, but since Radar Active does everything else, she probably did it. Our one goal is to somehow wrest that cape out of the hands of the Court Curmudgeon because really, how often will he use it at Burningman if he doesn't even go? We desire to at least get a chance to perspire in it.

Of course the photos are inadequate, but you try taking pictures on your lap folded into a recliner. We couldn't wait any longer for the allotted "up time" today to pay homage to the brilliance of these artists. Oh and while we're on the subject, there was some Jell-O at the show besides that made by the royal we. A few pieces of note:

Big Diva of course got lots of press with his comely mustache and pringled wall piece, which was rumored to be made with the assistance of several real potato chips. Representing his 16 years of participation, which can never match the 24 of at least two of us, alas, this piece showed the high level of technical expertise he has learned and the commitment it takes to buy gelatin by the 25-pound lot. He told us about some experiments with balloons that we can only hope to try at some point, which sound brilliant. You might remember him for his past pieces, some of which can be found on his Facebook profile where he goes by the pseudonym David Gibbs, presumably because he has some kind of a job outside of his Jell-O Art career. He has done magnificent self-referential pieces such as representations of his kidney stones, his goatee (now eclipsed by the mustachio-full bearded look, and he is to be admired or reviled alternatively for only gelling his mustache and not the whole dealio) and his Thanksgiving dinner, among many fabulous and sometimes theme-related pieces. I suspect he invited that Deen woman, with his zest for life and ability to make gravy and all. Since he has gotten quite enough attention with his front-page appearance in our local paper (He lives in Portlandia, so he is naturally more press-famous) here we see him stealing my images for his own personal use with some kind of big-city electronic device. His leisure suit is both authentic and tasteful though, and he donated items to the Jell-O Art Museum, for which we are eternally grateful and do hope won't mold in the bad way. One word, Diva: lampshade! Balloon lampshade!

Julie Sannes bravely dressed herself, her not-yet newborn, her girlfriend, her husband and his partner (speculate as much as you like about their family constellation, but let us warn you she makes no secret of her politics, as is entirely appropo) in turq-wazz (as Mildred Hodittle always says) which matched David's self-adornment as if planned. She always makes Jell-O and dresses in tandem and her brilliance is more quietly stated. The rolled-up supports for her piece even looked tasty if stale, and we love her contributions to the show every year. It is lovely to have people to count on and she is one. And she of course did promote the show,as we all do, and we're sure it was her idea to invite Sarah Palin, and Newtie's wife, whom we soundly defeated for the title. We mean really. Not many public quasi-officials have what it takes.

Because of our propensity for Jell-O names and our inability to properly view the show this year from a scooter, we don't quite know whose piece is whose in some of the photos. We saw Miss Mary Clare bring something in and it might be both of these. The layered pie and all the symbolism are more than pleasing, and we do always love to see the theme addressed with thoughtfulness and the appropriate level of rage. Let me take this opportunity to state for the record that the Jell-O show, despite the unfortunate purchases of corporate food-like substances, is anti-corporate as hell and has always been. That's kind of the point. The political is personal, etc, etc, and if you knew what some of us did in our younger days you would be appalled, not to even bring up our proto-feminist grandmothers. Mainstream or even liberal we are not! So maybe people didn't really get the connection between Occupy, the End, and a notoriously inedible Kraft product, but if art has to be spelled out to you, maybe you need to fetch a freakin' clue. We shall stop.

Our personal favorite piece (besides our own, and we know we will be forgiven for that) was the waffle breakfast by Leah and Jeff, who also get credit for the Etch-a-Sketch we believe. The suspended syrup bottle (hopefully also a Kraft product, certainly a corporate one) was beyond inspired, and we don't even need to know how many tries it took to execute. And this was not dried Jell-O folks, which provides the opportunity for leisurely exploration over months. We poked the egg and waffles and they were still jiggly. The colors were perfect, the use of the menu and props were excellent. This was world-class Jell-O art, partly because the perfection might have even led you to pass over it as something normal to view. While not strictly tromp-l'oile, it did fool the eye and we just loved it. And the guffaw factor of the etch-a-sketch, not to mention it's timeliness in current political news, was stellar.

This is getting too long but we do want to mention that one of our Old Angels, if we have such a thing (admitting that all of us are of somewhat advanced age) sent a piece from The East Coast! It was appropriately slightly moldy as one would expect after making its way through the halls of the USPO all the way from Rhode Island, but if we had prizes this would certainly have won one. It was small but well-conceived, as would be expected from this spicily-seasoned artist who is missed every year. We were thrilled to have her contribution and tempted to put it on the Tacky Food Table as it contained beef, which is as tacky as it gets.

We must go. We do so regret pretty much missing the Tacky Food due to immobility and lack of hunger since we brought a lunch.We assume there was some, and we got a glimpse of a radical version of ambrosia with peanuts? There is an artist who reliably prepares actual Jell-O recipes from real cookbooks and we have no idea what she brought, to our dismay. Perhaps she will let us know. This is just one more example of "If you blink you will miss it" which ought to be one of our slogans. We are afraid the Jell-O company itself seems to be remiss in creating the annual slogans and in even advertising their classic products, having converted predictably to the wasteful but oh-so-tempting single-serving-wrapped-in-lots-of-non-recyclable-petroleum-product-toxic-waste stuff they are trying to foist off on the overworked parents and kids of our modern world. Plus the fact that they are too small to even satisfy the American stomach, necessitating the brilliantly conceived over-consumption of multiple packages, they taste reliably like crap (not that we would know, except for in the hospital when we did eat some tapioca and several cups of custard because that was the only choice we thought we had until we heard about the sandwiches. Needless to say we consumed no Jell-O.)

So yes, anti-corporate to the extreme, full of punditry and derision, we remain your quietly jiggling eminence, reviewing for you some of the highlights of this year in Jell-O. We have barely begun to expound, but remember, you encouraged us. Oh, and if you still want a t-shirt, we have a few left, which are free at this point, though donations are encouraged. Even a couple of the pink camo. To Jell-O!