UNC-TV and more
> Tune into UNC-TV Friday, January 17, 2003, to see Art*o*mat featured on
North Carolina NOW! This show airs at 7:30 p.m. and again at 12:30 a.m.
> Keep your eye on the site for new names and art samples appearing on the
artists page.
> Below is a great note from Arto-artists Sue Clancy and Judy Sullens that we feel really captures the essence of the project....
Clark and Artists in Cellophane:
Thank you so much for this Art-O-Mat project! I know that we at This Artist Studio enjoy the project both for the 'performance art' aspect of the participation/action/effort required on the part of the buyer and also the fact that in this 'machine/information age' one can step up to a machine and buy handmade art.
For us, this Art*O*Mat project is not just about 'inexpensive art.' So often our days are 'interfaced' with machines. One steps up to a machine (ATM) to get out money. Another machine takes our food orders at drive thru windows. Bank Tellers are behind glass or only visible on a TV screen. Grocery store clerks expect us to slide our own credit cards in a machine and then sign the machine's window to pay for our merchandise, etc.
I think often people are so accustomed to having a machine between them and the human they are needing to communicate with that we don't even think about this anymore. We're disconnected from knowing or being aware that things are made (or designed) by a creative-thinking individual - no matter what that thing is. Even when some object is mass-produced, at some point it originated in one person's brain as an idea/concept.
So as a way of making people more alert and aware of their world, we loved the idea of the Art*O*Mat machines! It's a machine - so people are familiar with the 'step up and put in your money' routine - and it looks very 'corporate' - but it dispenses handmade original art! Something you'd usually not get from a machine, much less from a corporation.
And much like when you buy a bag of chips from a vending machine at work - you give 65 cents for a very small bag. You might decide that you like that brand of chips and thus when you go to the grocery store you may pick up a larger bag of the same chips. The little grab-bag you'd purchased at work being your introduction to the "brand."
In our opinion, this is the same idea is what we see at Art*O*Mat. The buyer might decided they like an artists work based on the sample out of the vending machine and they may decide to approach the artist about a 'real' work of art. Besides, the buyer participated in the whole exchange - so they're part of the art.
See - this is why isn't about 'cheap art' for us. It's a familiar way to introduce people to a new artist/artwork they've probably not seen or tried before. It's awesome!
Thank you so much for allowing us to be a part of the Art*O*Mat
project. We love it!
This Artist Studio
Sue Clancy and Judy Sullens
Thanks for the perspective, Sue and Judy.
