Automatic for the People

Happy Monday, My Lovelies!  I hope you had a fantastic weekend.  Shelley took the ACT Saturday morning, so we had a kind of low-key weekend around here.

Today for Artful Monday I wanted to share with you the work of geniuses....yep, GENIUSES!  If you are of a certain vintage, you might remember cigarette vending machines that looked something like this:

But look closely:  Do you see it?  This vintage machines no longer dispense cancer-sticks, oh, no! Instead they dispense art.....because one should "never be without art!"

Called Art O Mats, these little machines can be found all over the world sharing tiny little works of art with the masses. The art is either contained in a box or affixed to a wooden block the same size of cigarette cartons.  That's how they work.  So.  Cool.

From the Art O Mat website:

Art lovers can order cartons of tiny works of art from the website.

I was my first Art O Mat at Shelley's art class at Auburn University's Jules Collins Smith Art Museum:

Although I'm NOT an Auburn fan, I think it's fun that this machine is painted in the school's colors of orange and blue.

Above are the little abstracts and landscapes we collected during the school year.  We keep them in the art studio.  Aren't they fun!

While writing this post I developed an earworm  Do you know what an earworm is?  It's when you get a song stuck in your head and you can't get it out.  I keep hearing R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People album in my head...probably because of the vending machines providing art for the masses.What's my favorite song on the album, you ask? Hmmmm....that's a hard choice because Automatic for the People just might be their best album.  I guess that today my favorite song from the album is "Nightswimming."

Here it is for your listening pleasure!

R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming" from the album Automatic for the People

Linking to:

Until next time...

Blessings!

Ricki Jill