Artomat

Dig. Okay. So, I was talking to the guy at Art Purveyors where I bought the Dr. Martins Star Black Matte from over the telephone--and we were talking about this and that, the giclee business he is in, their process etc. You know that this sort of chat can land you in deep talking about religion, the Masons, recipes for Cornell Chicken and the like--and we ended up talking about his friend's concept and business. Worth sharing with you guys and even more worth trying out. This guy buys up old and fabulous cigarette machines and loads them with art/objects/creations etc. and distributes them all over the place. You can read about him at Artomat. You have to work within a specified size and package the art in a specified way (he sells the boxes or blocks of wood at a very moderate price)--The artists submits one for consideration and upon approval, submits 50 (no profit here...the artist makes $2.50@) and they get loaded into the machines or sent as part of the assortment. The Artomat machines are in Art Museums across the country (LA Moca, The Whitney and Whole Foods(not a real museum--but their work in produce with color blocking is pretty good) to name a few). To those in the know, a $5.00 chance allows them to collect cool art (much like the small stuff at Kid Robot). And for the artist, your art (albeit small) is getting out there with a tiny artists statement or link to the web or whatever. Somewhat random in the distribution--you never know....

Maybe I can agitate my friends at CMoG or maybe even the Johnson Museum @ Cornell to have one of these. I was surprised that MassMoca hasn't jumped on board. Or even Gimme?

Gotta think!

The Artomat Machine shown above is from Monkey Hill in Lambertville, NJ.