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Warning: Contents May Be Habit Forming
By Nicole M. Miller
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 14, 2001; Page C01
After feeding coins into the machine and choosing one of the 20 knobs to pull, you grab it tightly and yank. Kerplunk! You reach inside the tray and take out a small box. It's the size of a pack of smokes, but instead of butts, you find culture and creativity, a little nourishment for the soul.
It's a new venue for local artists.
In a few weeks, Art*o*mat comes to Washington. Not to be confused with Art-O-Matic (the large artist-run show that filled the old Hechinger building last year), Art*o*mat is a retired and revamped cigarette machine filled with artwork.
Your $5 worth of quarters might yield a box with a stained-glass panel inside, a photo-magnet or a tiny book of art. You may even get a piece of wood -- painted or carved, or otherwise artistically transformed. It will be like the surprise in a Cracker Jack box.
There are more than 20 Art*o*mats across the country, stashed in grocery stores, art centers, coffee shops, hospitals and museums. Even the Whitney Museum in New York has one. The District machine will be installed July 7 in the Fresh Fields supermarket in the 1400 block of P Street NW.
The man responsible for Art*o*mat is artist Clark Whittington of (appropriately enough) Winston-Salem, N.C. Since 1997 the freelance graphic artist has been using old cigarette machines to sell miniature art through his business Artists in Cellophane.
It's a creative way to recycle the machines, which have been banned from many public places to prevent minors from buying cigarettes. The District began restricting them in 1991.
Whittington has given them a new life. He's found machines that date to the 1940s at junkyards, through vending companies and even on eBay. Operating from his basement, Whittington doesn't do a hard sell on the machines; when he gets an opportunity to install one, he does. He made contact with Fresh Fields in Washington through connections with his local Whole Foods Market (the parent company of Fresh Fields), which also has an Art*o*mat. The machine headed for the District is an early-'70s model with a stained-glass front featuring an owl and a bright orange moon. Cigarette burns give the fake wood finish real authenticity.
"It's beautifully hideous," Whittington says. "It's a very shag-carpet feel. It's a '70s feel."
Fresh Fields will put the machine next to Customer Service, where lovers of tiny art can get change for a fiver. The machine will also take the new "golden dollar" coins. Half the $5 price will go to the artist, $1.50 to Whittington for machine upkeep and $1 to a local charity, the Millennium Arts Center in Southwest.
"The project went from just a quirky, fun thing to something that's benefiting the community," says Whittington, who hasn't made a profit from the project.
In all, he has more than 125 "artists in cellophane" from five countries. The D.C. machine, however, will focus on local artists; interested artists can submit samples of their work directly to Whittington; contact information is on his Web site. So far, says Whittington, artists have responded enthusiastically; 14 of the machine's 20 slots have been filled.
"Everyone is just so jazzed," he says.
Artist Kate Terkanian is creating beaded copper wire mobiles for Art*o*mat. She found out about the project at the Whole Foods in Winston-Salem, where she was visiting a friend.
"I've always been a sucker for those little machines," she says.
Primarily a jewelry artist, she decided to make mobiles for the Washington Art*o*mat. Her boxes are labeled: "Twisted Wire: Mighty, Yet Mini, Mobiles."
It's been a challenge for some of the artists to integrate their style into such small pieces. Fresh Fields store artist Aaron Fleming is a painter. He likes painting on large canvases, and has done his share of murals. To paint for Art*o*mat, he decided to group blocks of wood together and paint a larger picture. That way he can work on a large painting while also making sure each individual block stands on its own.
Chris Charnitski, however, is making miniature versions of his larger paintings. A biology teacher in Fairfax County, he paints a footprint on one block of wood and a simple landscape of vibrant colors on another.
"You use the compositions that you like, the colors that you like and play with them," Charnitski says. "It's not as detailed."
Tim Gabel decided to make his art functional. He's laminating small versions of his photographs and collages, and mounting a magnet on the back, so people can slap his artwork on their fridge. The artsy magnets will be sold in a box, which he's decorating with a rainbow print.
"It's a lot of work for very little money, but it's so cool," says Gabel, a former smoker. "What a concept, to take something that was destroying people's lives . . . and make it into something that's really going to promote artists."
By Nicole M. Miller
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 14, 2001; Page C01
After feeding coins into the machine and choosing one of the 20 knobs to pull, you grab it tightly and yank. Kerplunk! You reach inside the tray and take out a small box. It's the size of a pack of smokes, but instead of butts, you find culture and creativity, a little nourishment for the soul.
It's a new venue for local artists.
In a few weeks, Art*o*mat comes to Washington. Not to be confused with Art-O-Matic (the large artist-run show that filled the old Hechinger building last year), Art*o*mat is a retired and revamped cigarette machine filled with artwork.
Your $5 worth of quarters might yield a box with a stained-glass panel inside, a photo-magnet or a tiny book of art. You may even get a piece of wood -- painted or carved, or otherwise artistically transformed. It will be like the surprise in a Cracker Jack box.
There are more than 20 Art*o*mats across the country, stashed in grocery stores, art centers, coffee shops, hospitals and museums. Even the Whitney Museum in New York has one. The District machine will be installed July 7 in the Fresh Fields supermarket in the 1400 block of P Street NW.
The man responsible for Art*o*mat is artist Clark Whittington of (appropriately enough) Winston-Salem, N.C. Since 1997 the freelance graphic artist has been using old cigarette machines to sell miniature art through his business Artists in Cellophane.
It's a creative way to recycle the machines, which have been banned from many public places to prevent minors from buying cigarettes. The District began restricting them in 1991.
Whittington has given them a new life. He's found machines that date to the 1940s at junkyards, through vending companies and even on eBay. Operating from his basement, Whittington doesn't do a hard sell on the machines; when he gets an opportunity to install one, he does. He made contact with Fresh Fields in Washington through connections with his local Whole Foods Market (the parent company of Fresh Fields), which also has an Art*o*mat. The machine headed for the District is an early-'70s model with a stained-glass front featuring an owl and a bright orange moon. Cigarette burns give the fake wood finish real authenticity.
"It's beautifully hideous," Whittington says. "It's a very shag-carpet feel. It's a '70s feel."
Fresh Fields will put the machine next to Customer Service, where lovers of tiny art can get change for a fiver. The machine will also take the new "golden dollar" coins. Half the $5 price will go to the artist, $1.50 to Whittington for machine upkeep and $1 to a local charity, the Millennium Arts Center in Southwest.
"The project went from just a quirky, fun thing to something that's benefiting the community," says Whittington, who hasn't made a profit from the project.
In all, he has more than 125 "artists in cellophane" from five countries. The D.C. machine, however, will focus on local artists; interested artists can submit samples of their work directly to Whittington; contact information is on his Web site. So far, says Whittington, artists have responded enthusiastically; 14 of the machine's 20 slots have been filled.
"Everyone is just so jazzed," he says.
Artist Kate Terkanian is creating beaded copper wire mobiles for Art*o*mat. She found out about the project at the Whole Foods in Winston-Salem, where she was visiting a friend.
"I've always been a sucker for those little machines," she says.
Primarily a jewelry artist, she decided to make mobiles for the Washington Art*o*mat. Her boxes are labeled: "Twisted Wire: Mighty, Yet Mini, Mobiles."
It's been a challenge for some of the artists to integrate their style into such small pieces. Fresh Fields store artist Aaron Fleming is a painter. He likes painting on large canvases, and has done his share of murals. To paint for Art*o*mat, he decided to group blocks of wood together and paint a larger picture. That way he can work on a large painting while also making sure each individual block stands on its own.
Chris Charnitski, however, is making miniature versions of his larger paintings. A biology teacher in Fairfax County, he paints a footprint on one block of wood and a simple landscape of vibrant colors on another.
"You use the compositions that you like, the colors that you like and play with them," Charnitski says. "It's not as detailed."
Tim Gabel decided to make his art functional. He's laminating small versions of his photographs and collages, and mounting a magnet on the back, so people can slap his artwork on their fridge. The artsy magnets will be sold in a box, which he's decorating with a rainbow print.
"It's a lot of work for very little money, but it's so cool," says Gabel, a former smoker. "What a concept, to take something that was destroying people's lives . . . and make it into something that's really going to promote artists."
