Worked Up So Textural

Hello, all! I have not succeeded in finishing my 1950s place setting photos yet (or really even started them to be honest), but I do have the other half of the project finished. This whole project has been out of my comfort zone because my work usually involves the human element. In some ways, my pieces will involve a sort of narrative because of the implied human relationship with food preparation, but these images below are more textural and abstract (definitely out of my comfort zone!!). I hope you like them:

Pickle Mold, Digital Print, 8" x 10", 2010.

Pasta Mold, Digital Print, 8"x10", 2010

Green Bean Casserole Mold, Digital Print 8"x10", 2010.

Collard Greens and Chicken Mold, Digital Print, 8"x10", 2010.

I would love to hear your feedback! I hope you enjoyed my pieces :)

There are more coming soon!!

Ty-Pickle Me

Last night, my dear friend Scott helped me make some more Jell-o creations for my upcoming photoshoot (I haven't come up with a name for the series yet) where I will taking pictures of gelatin-encased foods that would not normally be served in mold form (not even in the 50s!)

Here are my ingredient previews:


The pickle-mold was inspired by Dr. Seuss and his movie, 5000 Fingers of Dr. T :)


And this is where you should start getting very scared:



Scott and I were very disturbed by the smell of this dish, but luckily for everyone reading this, there is no smell-o-vision on this blog :)

Enjoy! I will be shooting this weekend, so hopefully I will get some of my finished pieces up next Monday.

Shades of Green Beans

I'm checking in with the second preview for my new series:

Hmmm... we've got some ingredients for a classic thanksgiving dish, but there seems to be some sort of suspicious powdery substance. What could it be?

Of course, you know! It's Jell-o! Good news is my first set from yesterday came out pretty well :) The bad news is I forgot to grease my mold this time... so it is potentially a disaster waiting to happen :(

Wish me luck!

Shellshock

Hello, everyone!

Here is a little something to whet your appetite:

Oh, what horrors await me in my fridge?! I've begun the first idea in a series of many involving foods that would not be normally gelatinized. It is a light-hearted project meant to poke fun at the amazing 1950s Jell-o... well, everything!

Tonight I made 4 miniature "Pasta Molds" and I'm crossing my fingers that they hold up well enough to photograph them tomorrow night :)

I found an added bonus tonight; I realized the visual delight that is the unformed Jell-o... stew? As I was photographing my process for blogging purposes, I took some great photos I might use as finals!

Saladdin Sane

I still haven't taken pictures of anything because I have been too lazy to get my lights out to take a decent picture.

In other, slightly more important, news--I bring you a few scans that are inspiring my current photo project!

I have a passionate love for visual effect of molded food. C'est très grotesque!

Expect to see images very soon inspired by the following scans from an issue of Better Homes and Gardens:

The idea of eating such a thing by itself isn't so horrible (it's basically just fruit and gelatin... not so strange), but the idea of eating it with sliced ham or fried chicken was a bit weird... the fact that the center was filled with mayonaisse was what really made it gross-out quality for me.

HIGH-AND-HANDSOME?! That is all.

My favorite part about this image is the name: "Snowy Chicken Confetti Salad." Sounds cheery doesn't it? I'm sure it is quite cheery... right until the point where all of your guests spew their guts from putting it near their faces!

This last one is by far my favorite retro food image I've ever found based soley on the page's title sentence.

I hope you enjoy these images and find them as silly and awesome as I do!

Jell-o, I love you won't you tell me your name?

Over the weekend, I did a little shopping and found some neat stuff: a purple, puffy princess dress, a really awful knit sweater that I love, some HORRIFYING vintage Santa/Mrs. Claus heads, and most importantly.... some more JELL-O molds and vintage cook books!

I am a artist (a photographer primarily) and my favourite subject to explore is the bizarre relationship Americans have with food. Recently, I've been researching retro food (specifically the 1950s-1970s) because of the truly unappetizing qualities of it. All of the food is displayed with extreme care and is overly ornate in order to make the food seem as appealing as possible, but to modern eyes, unlike vintage fashion, the dated quality of the images is 100% disgusting! Therefore, I love it!


My most recent photographs depict a sort of behind-the-scenes gluttony that no one ever sees; in advertisments that depict people eating, no one is ever really eating... when people eat, it looks gross, but people deny this.

This piece, Pecan, 2010 is one image from my "Pies" series.

In my "Pie" pieces, I took a food that was yummy and yummy looking, and made it look really grotesque, but in my new works I want to take food that looks bizarre and maybe gross (not like dead animals and stuff, but just stuff you wouldn't want to eat) and put it in a commercial-looking situation.

That is where the Jell-o molds come in... I will keep you posted ;)

(Side note: I think Christmas should be banished to December and it should stop invading November, but I HAD to buy those Santa heads because they were too creepy to pass up! I will post a photo of them later!)

First Post!

I am very bored, so I decided I would start my very own blog! I will probably rant a bunch of boring stuff that no one will read, post about my art, and post about my crafts! For now, I will post a song that I'm currently in love with:

Enjoy!