Buried (blog) Treasure!

I'm a bit late today, but it was the day to post some Buried Treasure to participate in Seth Apter's (The Altered Page) annual blog collaboration. Participants are invited to dig deep in their blog vaults and repost one of their favorite posts from the previous year and then visit all of the other participants' treasures.

I had a hard time with this as the last year was consumed with my dad's failing health, spending time with him (1800 miles from here), taking care of him, missing him, and then his passing and really missing him. I am still in the stage of grief, marking time, looking back at those days and thinking "dad was still here" or that was "just before I left for Dad's", etc. So, I'm just not gonna go there. And, my art has grown and gone in new directions with the digital designing so . . . . what to post, what to post? As I was revisiting old posts I was reminded of a very cool little idea that just fascinates me . . . . .
the Art-O-Mat!



I originally posted about this in October, 2009 and mentioned how it is one of those "wish I would have thought of that" things. I still wish I would have thought of it. So, what is it? Well, it's the very cool idea of artist Clark Whittington and the idea is to sell art in vending machines. Currently there are 82 of these ultra cool vintage vending machines scattered across the U.S. with around 400 contributing artists from around the world.

Customers put a dollar in the machine, pull a knob and walk away with an original work of art about the size of a cigarette pack!

You can see all 82 machines, see where they're located, and samples of the artists' work here at the Art-O-Mat site! The whole idea was born out of the attraction to the crinkling of cellophane . . . I love knowing where ideas are born. You can read about that on the site too, but in case you don't make it over there, the mission statement is worth sharing here . . .

"Artists in Cellophane (A.I.C.), the sponsoring organization of Art*o*mat® is based on the concept of taking art and "repackaging" it to make it part of our daily lives. The mission of A.I.C. is to encourage art consumption by combining the worlds of art and commerce in an innovative form. A.I.C believes that art should be progressive, yet personal and approachable."


I also posted my favorite personal work to date in 2009 . . . in August.

Lady Fish


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 8/13/09. All rights reserved.
This is an 8 x 10 collage using a face and separate body from flickr's Suzee Que, wings from itkupilli.etsy.com, a crown from the Library of Congress, a fish from keeperofthenest.etsy.com, shoes from a magazine picture, flooring from flickr's 'Playingwithbrushes', buildings from the Library of Congress, black and white checked pieces from flickr's Nancy Baumiller (pieced together to form a frame) available at Crowabout.etsy.com, additional borders from flickr's wackystuff and designer Sande Krieger, and a main background from flickr's JoesSistah. All but the background were reprinted, hand cut with scissors, edged with ink, shaded with pastel and many were completely recolored with ink and pastel.

So, that's all I'll share tonight. It is always an unexpectedly fun task to go revisit your own old blog posts and see what you accomplished the year before or survived or enjoyed. I think the only two times I've taken the time to do that is with Seth's project. So thank you, Seth!