Why Jello?

I’ve been getting a lot of attention since Pleasing’s Instagram account posted the name of my Instagram account, and it has led a lot of people to ask, “WHY JELLO?”

I made another three-tiered yellow jello mold this Christmas for a new customer, just like the ones I made for Harry Styles. Stormy the cat says she has seen it all before.

The reason Pleasing found me and asked me to make the piece for their pop-up shops is easy: I was the only artist on Etsy who made life-size jello molds out of resin. I was already listing molds with sea creatures, farm animals, and goldfish. They just placed a custom order—to make it look like their cartoon sketch, and to make it BIG.

The Pleasing folks found me because I already offered fake jello molds with toys inside.

But where did I get the idea in the first place? I’d been playing with resin since 2021, making marbles with cicada shells inside as a way to preserve some of the magic of Brood X, the infestation of cicadas that strikes the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. every 17 years.

I’d been making cicada marbles out of resin to preserve cicada shells.

I think I owe the leap to the jello to Charles Pebworth, one of my artistic inspirations and family friends from Huntsville, Texas. Charles went through a phase in the 1980s or 1990s when he was painting jello molds on women’s heads. I inherited one such watercolor from my dad, and I look at it every time I walk up the stairs in my house. Like everything else Charles produced, it’s genius.

Charles Pebworth, Woman Power, illegible date in the 1980s or 1990s, 8” x 10”

When I was little I also enjoyed jello molds at my grandmother’s house with “jello salad” in them — prominently featuring Kool-whip and frozen strawberries as well as red jello and walnuts. In 2004 when I made a book called Alphabiographical Order in an etching class at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia, I made sure that jello was represented.

J is for desserts and salads made of jello. Kay is for justice and joy.

So what’s next? I’ve made a batch of small versions of the large Harry Styles jellos. They’ll be a little more accessible since the resin — and thus the sculptures — are so expensive.

After this, I’ve got some more ideas for life beyond jello. I’m thinking… maybe swimming pools in vintage soap dishes? I’ll keep you posted.