About the artist:

The Frozen Moments concept was the idea of Australian artist Geoffrey Rose. Rose came up with the concept while living in London, but didn't really pursue it until he returned home to Australia in the late 1970s and began selling 'food' sculptures to local art galleries as high end, one of a kind pieces. He then seems to have issued more affordable pieces for a brief time in the 1976 - 78 timeframe. In the mid-1980s fellow Australian entrepreneur Ivan Hull became interested in the concept feeling there could be a bigger market for the sculptures. He moved to Aspen, Colorado and opened Aspen Enterprises which began designing various pieces and then contracted manufacturing with the St. Petersburg, Florida-based Moments Too, Inc. Owned and operated by Grant Fashbaugh, Gary Wawrzaszek, and Pierce Power, Moments Too, Inc. also obtained East Coast distribution rights. There are multiple variations on particular themes such as different brands of beer being poured into a mug, or different soda cans being poured into a glass. Regardless, after getting off to a quick start, the public's interest peaked fairly early. By 1987 parent company Aspen Enterprises seems to have called it quits. Though thousands of sculptures were manufactured during the 1985 - 87 timeframe, the pieces aren't that easy to find and have again become somewhat collectable.

"Little did Geoffrey Rose know that his stint as starving artist would lead him to his bread and butter. Frozen Moments, his line of novelty sculptures, was hatched--by accident--during those salad days in his London apartment. ``The place was a hovel, actually, so cold and drafty that everything would freeze,`` says the Australian-born artist. ``I came home from a trip and found an overturned milk carton. The milk had frozen and formed a bridge on the table. It looked like a white icicle. It was weird.`` Thus was launched the idea of showing everyday things pouring, spilling, flowing, gushing. Today his collection of plastic delights includes a breaking egg poised over a bowl, a stream of milk flowing into a cup of black coffee, a can of foaming lager, a melting ice-cream cone, baked beans oozing out of a can. Three years ago Rose`s partner, Ivan Hall, introduced Frozen Moments into the States. The pair learned fast about cultural differences in humor: Aussies go for novelty items like the bowl of corn flakes and wet paint brushes; Americans are big on classics like beer, cake and spaghetti. The majority of the customers are women. Generating ideas for Frozen Moments is a six-person effort. ``Every few months we have a two-week think period,`` says Harold Leonard, manager of shipping and receiving. ``We sit around and throw ideas out, experiment with materials and make prototypes. ``Coming up with ideas isn`t hard. One of the artists came up with the pasta idea after ordering spaghetti and meatballs in a restaurant. The chocolate cake idea was basic, but the design came from a German torte my mother makes.' The challenge is coming up with just the right shades of color. Red is the hardest. For the spaghetti and strawberries, we mixed red, yellow and brown until we were blue in the face.`` Real corn flakes sprayed with varnish are used in the cereal bowl. The milk carton isn`t a fake either. It`s the genuine article from a dairy in Australia. That country also supplies the lager can and toothpaste. When Leonard reveals the ingredients in the chocolate cake, the temptation to lick the frosting lessens. ``The cake is sponge, coated with epoxy resin. The frosting is caulking.`` Frozen Moments are available at Arcadia at Carson, Pirie Scott & Co., State Street; some Art Explosion stores; Card and Gift Gallery, 205 W. Golf Rd., Schaumburg; and Mother`s Aid Gift Shop, 667 Vernon Ave., Glencoe. Prices start at $25."

Chicago Tribune May 11, 1986 by Margaret Sheridan