Back in April of 2015 I came across the idea of selling art in a vending machine. I don't know if something came across one of my numerous social media feeds, or if someone mentioned it in a meeting, but the spark of the idea took light in the tinder in my mind. Since then I have been finding other similar projects others have embarked on. I also started trolling Ebay until I found the machine I wanted. But I shouldn't get ahead of myself.
A great resource on art through vending machines I found at Callithump.org. This blog has a great history page of other vending machine art projects over the last century. Through their history page I learned aboutthe largest "art in a machine" projects: Art-O-Mat. Art-O-Mat machines can be found all over the US. Each machine is a reconditioned cigarette vending machine that dispenses art in a cigarette pack, usually at the $5 price point. Each machine itself is a work of art. Out in Chicago, the Busy Beaver Button Company has been doing a Button-O-Matic project since 2002. Using a toy capsule vending machine to sell buttons seemed like a natural fit. I also reached out to the Vending Arts Project in London, Ontario. Janine Wass said that the project wasn't a huge money maker but I love the idea of greeting cards through a repurposed snack machine. And these were just a few I found!
With so much inspiration to draw from, I began bouncing ideas off my friends and family. I began brainstorming idea. Should I put mini rubber stamps in a machine, or buttons, stickers, or all of the above? What would be the topic; mythical creatures, food, candy? What price, 50 cents, $1.00? So after much thinking, and watching Ebay for a solid machine at a good price, I pulled the trigger. I am now the proud owner of a Northwestern capsule vending machine that dispenses 2" capsules.
So the machine is mechanically solid. It came with a 50 cent coin mechanism, but I will likely replace this shortly with a $1.00 coin mech (four quarters). The paint is chipped in a few places, and it has a few dents, but I have been watching some YouTube clips and plan on giving it a nice facelift with a new color. The plexiglass (polycarbonate) face has some scratches that I will try to buff our, or replace if necessary. The machine can sit on a table right now, but I might add a wooden stand for it to sit on. So after a little tender loving care, I'm sure it will be looking as good as new.
So what is going to be IN the machine? What will come out of it? Stay tuned....
Back in November, I participated as an exhibitor at the Rochester Mini Maker Faire. This was my second year (review from 2014). This year my project was called "The Empire Stamps Back." I had various hand carved rubber stamps that I made, and instructions on how to doodle Star Wars characters from finger and thumb prints. Participants could use these to create a free postcard to take home. The inspiration came from the book, "Star Wars Thumb Doodles" by Klutz. With the upcoming release of "The Force Awakens" I thought this would be the perfect year to let kids play around with the Star Wars universe.
Here are some pictures you can click through of prints I made leading up to the event, then some from the Faire itself...
The project was a big hit with the kids especially, and several adults. The kids were willing to jump right in and take a risk. Many of the adults seemed intimidated to make a postcard, or get inky. It was interesting watch this psychology all day. The children would run up to the table, and start right in, while the adults would take two steps back into a supervisory pattern to watch their offspring make something.
I didn't get a chance to circulate much around the Faire, but several adults circled back to tell me that my table was their kids favorite.
The project really helped me think about how each of these characters are made up of different shapes. I know illustrators really start with shapes as the structure of a character, and this project helped me reverse engineer what some of the shapes were for humans and aliens alike.
Ah, May 4th... Star Wars day. May the fourth be with you. Only geeks would come up with this stuff (myself included). It is so cheesy it's tasty.
So much of my playtime as a child of the 80's revolved around Star Wars. I had nearly every action figure, and would spend hours inside and out playing with them. In fact I think there is still a Luke Skywalker in Besbin outfit buried somewhere under my parents pine tree near the fence. I have shown my daughter the original trilogy so "the circle is now complete," as Vader would say.
In honor of Star Wars Day, and in anticipation of the upcoming Episode 7, the Force Awakens, I have posted a few photo's of rubber stamps that I carved for letterboxes several years ago.
Can you tell my favorite movie was Episode 4?
Now go check out my sister's blog and her works of art she posted for Star Wars day.
The story begins at the Rochester Mini Maker Faire. My friend Dan Bentley, who makes the most incredible robot sculptures called Retrobots, had his 'bots on display near my table. We were passing time as we waited for the doors to open. He mentioned that he had been approached by WXXI producer Tom Dooley about being featured on a new program that would be called Arts in Focus. The show would showcase artists from Rochester and around the country. He asked if he should put in a good word for me. "Sure!" I said.
Before the end of the day, Tom Dooley who had stopped by to talk to Dan and check out the Maker Faire came over to my table to introduce himself. I explained what I did, gave him my card, and he said he would get in contact with me. I was a little surprised when he did, and we set up a time for him to come to my home and do an interview. He said he would like to do the interview in my creative space. I don't think he knew that at that moment that my creative space was a cold basement room with pretty crummy light.
Tom showed up at my house in late December with videographer Jim Day. I said we could shoot in the dining room with good light, or the living room that was a bit less echo-y. They said they wanted to see where I worked. As soon as they walked into the basement they said, "yes, let's do it here." Fortunately I worked for days cleaning it up. Not too much, I wanted to leave artwork from my friends in RNEST, and that made by my daughter to remain in the background had they chose to shoot in this space. Jim asked up to give him a little time to set up a few lights and get things set up in the room. Tom and I talked a bit about how the show would go and I pried into his world travels a bit.
Jim called us back to the basement and we got the microphone and sounds checks done. Then Tom asked me questions. I did not know what the questions would be before time. I was confident in being able to field most questions they would have. After doing some podcasting in the past, I wasn't afraid of the camera or microphone. Unlike podcasting, I didn't have the ability to self censor myself, or do something over. However, I had trust that the pro's at WXXI like Tom and his editors would be able to cut things together to make me sound good, and to tell a coherent story, even if I wasn't able to do that on the fly. I think all the questions went great, until they got to the question I had dreaded, but knew would come up, "how is what you do art?"
Well, I fumbled my way through the question, going in very esoteric directions. After I finished, Tom asked me the question in a different way, and asked me to clarify some things. I don't remember exactly what he asked, but it worked, and I answered the question in a different way that didn't sound so idiotic. I have always viewed my work as a bit more mechanic, more craftsman. But after answering the questions Tom presented, I came to a new conclusion. Sometimes my work is very "paint by numbers," but other times I am making artistic decisions about what to include, what to leave out, what mood or movement do I want to bring to the stamp. And wouldn't you know, this was a very important part of the interview that made the final cut.
After about an hour of talking, we moved over to the carving table and I worked on a stamp of the Bausch & Lomb building from the Rochester skyline. I felt very comfortable in this roll, as Jim worked his way around the table getting different angles. I always wanted some video of me doing this, so this was cool to see it happening.
Tom and Jim finished up and we said our farewells. They informed me that the segment would be cut down from a couple hours of footage to about 5 minutes. I didn't envy them that job, but knew as professionals they had it covered. I emailed a few high-res scans that they wanted to use in the segment, and I waited patiently for the premiere.
I was a bit shocked when the show got advertised in the Democrat & Chronicle newspaper in mid-January, and they used a picture of me carving! I didn't see that one coming. Cat was out of the bag now! People at work started calling me Jack Bear. Oh boy, time to embrace this thing.
Well, the day came, and the show aired on WXXI on February 6, at 8:30 pm (prime time people!) I DVR'd it, and watched it with my wife later that evening when she got off of work. I crossed my fingers and hoped I wouldn't sound ridiculous. My fears were immediately relieved when I heard my voice and knew I had been well taken care of. And what good company I had on the show; Ward Stare for crying out loud! Man, am I honored to be on the same show as this talent.
So that is the behind the scene story of my interview! Thank you so much to Dan, Tom, Jim, and all the other behind the camera folks that work to put this show on the air at WXXI. I'm on cloud nine.
