Art-o-Mats

Does your city have an Art-o-mat? There are about 90 of them in the United States. Atlanta used to have one at a Whole Foods but it disappeared without notice. The only one I am likely to encounter now is the one at Sam Flax in Orlando Florida. Art-o-mats are retired cigarette machines; thats right, in case you didn't notice there are no vending machines for cigarettes anymore. When you insert 5 dollars in quarters you get to pull the knob and receive an original work of art wrapped in cellophane and about the size of a pack of cigs.

I love this for so many reasons. The recycling of the machines themselves for starters. These old mid- century designs are still very cool with their funky peg legs, chromey looking hardware and old school advertising designs. Check out this page of machines. I love the idea of looking in the windows, making a selection and pulling the knob and having something new to unwrap and examine. You cant really know what's inside, you gotta hope the packaging is a solid clue.

I've been thinking about submitting a design for Art-o-Mat, which would clearly be a labor of love and just for the sheer novelty of it. Of course, I would enjoy figuring out how to make something unique and desirable and designing equally as cool packaging for it.

You know who is an Art-o-Mat artist? Alicia Griswold, who does the judging of Haiku Monday when I host. Here is her piece:

Alicia's is pretty sophisticated with the plexi cover bolted on. Some are just little canvases with paintings, others are photography and there's a lot of collagey works. Some of them are awful and I would be very disappointed to have chosen wrong and end up with some of the weak work I've seen. But here are two that I really like:

Joane Lipinski

Wendy Krabbe

Here is a short news story on the Art-o-mat:

What do you think? Would you buy art from a vending machine? Have you ever seen an Art-o-mat? Should I do a photography piece or a little painting? (There are a lot of both already) Maybe the "Creaturas" I used to make as my guerilla art: those little fetishes that I would leave in the trees at the park or on a table at a cafe. Why did I do that?  Just so that whoever found it would have a little mystery for the day. Same thing with the Art-o-mat. It is not something you do for money. To make these fetishes  for an Art-o-mat, Id have to make a mold first for the skulls. Or else, it would be way too much time. But Ive got plenty of sticks, feathers and alpaca fur to git-r-done.

A bit labor intensive for this project

I don't know. But I'm pretty sure I am going to submit something to Art-o-mat this fall. Maybe a tiny accordion book. Maybe a tiny wooden folk art chicken. Maybe some cool gift tags or something to be used and not just kept. What would you pull a knob for?

Dim Sum Sunday: Peeps challenge

Over at the Karmic Kitchen theres an epic and iconic spring showdown brewing; the battle of the peeps. Peeps exist to rot teeth, fuel sugar meltdowns and provide sustenance to post-apocalyptic roaches.

They are not suitable for eating, only art. I didnt have time to make a museum piece like the peep kimona, so instead i went pragmatic. Peep wreath.

ingredients: peeps, glue gun, ribbon, flowers, cardboard, krylon varnish

I chose one sacrificial guinea peep to submit to varnish testing. I was concerned the varnish would destroy the peep, but nope, the peep took her coating with out so much as a...well, you know. It was clear the varnish and the peep were simpatico on a very molecular level.

i cut a cardboard form and made the bow.

started filling the board with peeps

I filled all the spaces in between the peeps with leaves and flowers.




The final

My review: the finished wreath has a truly sinister vibe. Its like a big plastic funeral decoration that mocks you on the way out. Perhaps this wreath could be the cautionary logo of a childhood obesity campaign. It looks innocent enough ( ha! Like marionettes do). This wreath reminds me of a Jeff Koons sculpture , whom ive always kind of hated, but now i think i will appropriate a koonsian stance and say this piece is an ironic statement on american culture.

This wreath should be as effective as lambs blood on your door when the weird passover smoke.... (you saw the ten commandments with charleton heston, right?...) comes creeping up your street. Happy Easter!