Date: Sun, 25 Feb 1996 20:34:42 -0500 (EST)
From: glen.mccready[SMTP:glen-AT-qnx.com]
Date: 	Sunday, February 25, 1996 10:04 AM
Subject: 	Spam Art: Creations from a Can


SPAM ART: CREATIONS FROM A CAN
by Jean Godden -- Times Staff Columnist

Brace yourself.  The seventh annual Spam Carving Contest, a spectacle that
draws scores of bystanders and attracts its share of national press, comes
to Pioneer Square's Occidental Mall from 2 to 4 p.m.  tomorrow.

Contestants who pay $5 -- proceeds go to Northwest AIDS Foundation -- have
15 minutes to fashion two cans of Spam into an _objet d'art_.  Plastic
gloves and knives are supplied, but contestants can -- and often do --
bring their own arsenals:  Swiss Army knives, graters, slicers, garlic
presses and antique dentistry tools.

Past creations have been winsome and witty.  Among the winning titles:
"Spammy Wynette singing 'Spam by Your Man,'" "Three Spams of the I-90
Bridge," and "Going to Hell in a Spam Basket."

This year, judges include novelist Tom Robbins, designer David Staskowski,
cable TV personality Brian Brock and Gary Trott of Subculture Joe, the
art group responsible for shackling the "Hammering Man" statue.  There's
and outside chance that Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder may help pick the
winners.

Not long ago, someone asked "Dr. Science" of Ducksbreath Theatre about
Spam.  His reply:  "The Spam is a living animal, cloned from hot-dog
tissue and is the only mammal with no hair, teeth or bones, which is why
people so seldom choose to photograph it.  It's only relative is a
synthetic jelly fish, the Velveeta."

>From _The Seattle Times_, Friday, February 16, 1996.









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