Art-o-mat = Art-o-gasmic

One of the most unique gifts we received this Christmas have EVER received was the box we received from the Art-o-mat headquarters. If you haven't yet heard of them, Art-o-mat machines are retired cigarette vending machines that have been converted to vend art. Such a cool idea! Wish I had thought of it first. Our dear friend Jena (pictured here, yes she is THAT cool in real life) sent us a delightful box of these little treasures and it was such a treat to open and explore. It was so delightful in fact, that it inspired Jon to be my first ever guest blogger for the following post of thanks entitled Art-o-gasmic. Enjoy.

Art-o-gasmic

Here is the box the fabulous art box it came in. Even the paper excelsior was fabulous.
Here is Qacei and the fabulous new 'do that she created just for the occasion of opening the fantasmagorolicious Art-o-Mat box o' art. Here are the m&m's Qacei and I ate whilst opening the fabulous art box. Sadly, the green ones no longer work the way I remember them as a lad. Here is the dog who could care less about the fabulous art box extraordinaire. Note the intentional

insouciance

of the whiskers. This is the dog who taught Ennui how to look disinterested. Here is Sondra. She is a Goddess and somewhat evocative of Picasso. This next one was a little underwhelming. It is a painted wood block--of what I am not so sure. It has a naive juvenilia quality to it. The artist, Andrew, leaves his phone number so perhaps we can call him and encourage him to pick up an art book or watch some videos of the late Bob 'happy little trees' Ross. The pocket monster came next and she totally made up for the preceding piece. She is stuffed with lavender and smells delightful. Roar? I love it. Then came the cool box lens thingy with recessed reflective surface lenticular whatsis. Must find some 'shrooms and crawl inside to see what the obverse looks like. I'm pretty sure she hid an alternative reality in there. Frips (from Gent, not the Frips we know from Boise) took an old photo of a young girl and photoshopped a map dress onto her. Sadly, the map does not tell us where Gent is. Elizabeth King painted a Floridian palm tree and titled it Got Paradise? This piece is a kind of like a Missing Person Poster because Florida lost their paradise a long time ago. Gail of the Two Last Names, made this awesome necklace. She and Qacei chose the same design for their free business cards from VistaPrint. Then came the interactive art, with a picture of the Tower du Eiffel and a request to visit his blog and tell the world where his art ended up.... ...his art is going to end up on the interior of our front door right next to our other picture of the Eiffel Tower: After visiting Paris ever so briefly, we were treated to a song and there was a tiny little journal ("for your dragonfly dreams") in the box too. The song was bluesy and fun. And finally, a clay recreation of the one-eyed monster painted on the box. The box is cartooned on all sides and I'm not sure how to mount it so as to not obscure any of the details. Mary suggested I make a mobile out of it, which would be really cool if I do a Calder-esque wire arc thing. Our front door already contains a miniature art gallery and thanks to you, Jena Jena Jena, our collection has doubled in size in one swell foop. We will send more photos when we have the gallery opening (and we will send you an invite, natch). I plan to get drunk on pomegranate martinis and do a performance piece of a man curating a miniature art gallery and getting drunk on banana daiquiris; the trick will be to get the pomegranate to pretend it is a banana. Will it be art imitating life or life imitating art? Or will it be a mobius strip allegory that turns on itself as soon as you think you know which side you're on? Wait...what?