Terrence writes;
Art-O-Mat Warning Lables
Art causes good health.
Art is addictive.
Art kills TV.
Art causes heart aches.
Art when pregnant loves your baby.
Your Art can comfort others.
Art seriously invigorates health.
Art Contains Creativity.
Art Causes Brain Euphoria Heart Throbs, Cultural Mania, and May
Complicate Your Life.
Buying Art Now Greatly Increases Happiness in Your Life.
Artnatural Art General
allen bukoff wrote:
> Art vends its way in unique outlets: Cigarette machines make stylish comeback
>
> By Maria Puente
> USA TODAY
>
> You can buy art in a gallery, on the street, on the Internet. Now you can
> buy art -- authentic, one-of-a-kind works -- from an old cigarette vending
> machine. You can bet the Surgeon General never thought of that.
>
> In coffeehouses and cafes, grocery stores and galleries, museum shops and
> hospitals, cigarette machines are making a comeback, only these aren't like
> any the Marlboro Man would recognize. Spiffily refurbished and elaborately
> painted, these machines, some dating to the 1950s, have been turned into
> pieces of art -- which in turn dispense handmade artworks no bigger than a
> pack of smokes, for prices ranging from $3 to $5.
>
> It's called the Art-O-Mat project, a smile-inducing whimsy of artists T.
> Clark Whittington and George Doles III of the Big Tobacco town of
> Winston-Salem, N.C., where old cigarette machines have been discarded in
> the decade since they were banned from establishments accessible to children.
>
> In 1997, the two got the idea of using the old machines to create a unique
> outlet for struggling artists to make a little money and expose their work
> to people who would otherwise never see it -- in effect blending art,
> commerce and marketing. And philanthropy: Some of the proceeds of sales are
> donated to an arts magnet school in Winston-Salem.
>
> Thanks to a contact in the tobacco industry, they got hold of an old
> vending machine, decorated it and recruited a few local artists to make
> things -- tiny paintings, assemblages of found objects, glass and ceramic
> works -- to ''stock'' the machine. Some machines retain their appealing
> ''retro'' look; others have been painted for specific venues. One installed
> in a children's hospital in Winston-Salem is painted to look like the
> classic Operation board game, Whittington says.
>
> ''We believe art should be progressive, yet personal and approachable,'' he
> says. ''We put the first one in a coffee shop, and they liked it so much
> they didn't want us to take it away. And after that, the word just spread.''
>
> So far, Art-O-Mats have been installed in two dozen locations in North
> Carolina, Pittsburgh, Houston, Cleveland and New York, in venues ranging
> from an ordinary Borders bookstore to the grand Whitney Museum of American
> Art in New York City. Each machine vends works made by 20 to 22 different
> artists, who get half the proceeds of sales.
>
> ''The reaction has been very, very positive,'' says Steven Buttner, retail
> director at the Whitney, where a red-and-yellow Art-O-Mat recently was
> installed near the gift shop and restaurant. It's been so successful the
> museum had to order dozens more artworks to restock. ''It says that art is
> really available to everyone. It's demystifying art, and people are
> intrigued by that.''
> Intrigued enough to buy and buy. At a Whole Foods grocery store in Houston,
> an Art-O-Mat painted in a Western theme with a horse-mounted cowboy has
> sold more than 550 artworks since it was installed in November. The same
> machine sold 200 pieces earlier, while it was at DiverseWorks Arts Space, a
> non-profit performing and visual arts center in the budding arts district
> of north downtown Houston.
>
> ''It's a new way of making creativity and art accessible, affordable and
> fun,'' says Diane Barber, visual arts director at DiverseWorks. ''It's
> something familiar -- a cigarette machine -- and yet out of the ordinary at
> the same time.''
>
> Meanwhile, the artist roster has grown from a half-dozen to a collective of
> more than 100 (called Artists in Cellophane). That includes a group of
> artists in Krofofrom, a village in Ghana in West Africa, who use a
> 1,000-year-old bronze casting technique to make miniature figural
> sculptures illustrating traditional African proverbs. Virginia Tyler, a
> Raleigh artist and college instructor who goes there every year to work
> with local artists, says villagers typically make less than $250 a year, so
> proceeds from Art-O-Mat sales go a long way.
>
> ''This is a way to relieve the economic strain on the village and encourage
> continuation of West African bronze casting and ancient traditions,'' says
> Tyler, who brings the tiny sculptures back in her luggage.
>
> Some of the Art-O-Mat artists make miniature versions of their paintings or
> sculptures, hoping to attract attention to the larger versions. Others make
> things just for Art-O-Mat. Robert Ziller, a Pittsburgh painter and
> sculptor, ordinarily uses steel I-beams and other castoff material from old
> steel mills to make large sculptures. But through Art-O-Mat, he and another
> local artist, Michael Saxman, have sold more than 100 tiny assemblages of
> found objects -- bits of postcards, jewelry, electronic components and the
> like -- encased in clear resin.
>
> ''I'm going to do some small oil paintings, probably as models for larger
> pieces, little sketches of ideas,'' Ziller says. ''It's fun to do something
> on that small a scale that people can pick up for $5.''
>
> The Art-O-Mats are so popular, Whittington (his partner, Doles, recently
> moved to Minneapolis) is having trouble keeping up with demand and
> continuing his own career as a graphic artist.
>
> For one thing, attractive cigarette machines are getting hard to find. ''I
> saw one on eBay I really liked and could get for maybe $50, but it would
> cost $500 to ship it,'' he sighs.
