It’s An Art-O-Mat: Just Pull The Knob For Original Artwork
I ran across this picture in my phone recently. I saw it at the Cosmopolitan – it’s an Art-o-mat machine. I have to admit, I don’t know if the vending machines are still there, but it was the coolest! I also saw one recently when I was in Sacramento, CA.
Art-o-mats are retired cigarette vending machines that have been converted to dispense art. In reading up on these vintage machines, I found out there are over 100 active machines in various locations throughout the country.
Pulling a knob, and getting something out of a machine, still brings out the kid in all of us. With Art-o-mat, you walk away with an original work of art. So now you can become an art collector!
The inspiration for Art-o-mat came to an artist named Clark Whittington when he noticed a friend have a Pavlovian reaction to the crinkinge of cellophane. When his friend heard someone opening a snack, he had the uncontrollable urge to have one too.
In 1997 Clark was doing a solo art show at a local cafe in Winston-Salem, N.C. He used a recently-banned cigarette machine to create the first Art-o-mat. It was installed along with 12 of his original paintings. They were black & white photographs mounted on blocks that sold for $1.00 each. When the show ended, owner Cynthia Giles loved the machine and asked that it stay permanently.
At that point, it was clear that involvement of other artists would be needed if the project was going to continue. Cynthia introduced Clark to some other local artists and the group Artists in Cellophane (AIC) was created. The machine remained unaltered in its original location until 2010.
There are around 400 contributing artists from 10 different countries currently involved in the Art-o-mat project, and they are always searching for fresh work. If you’re an artist, and you’re interested, here are the guidelines. Take a look at some of the artists, and treasures you can get.
I’m going to look for them in my travels now, because they are such a fun throwback. If you want to do the same, here’s where you can find one near you!
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Stunning First James Webb Telescope Images Released
Carina Nebula
The final image released during the event was probably the most visually spectacular. This Carina Nebula image shows a collection of stars and gas some 8,000 light years away – relatively close. The area shows stars we’ve never seen before, and even elements that scientists have never seen before, thanks to the infrared capabilities on Webb.
Every bright dot in the image is a star, many of which are similar to our Sun, so many of them also likely have similar planetary structures nearby.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI (Click on image for high resolution version.)
The Southern Ring Nebula
The second image released was of the Southern Ring Nebula.
“The Southern Ring nebula is a planetary nebula. (Despite “planet” in the name, these aren’t planets — they’re shells of dust and gas shed by dying Sun-like stars.) The new details from Webb will transform our understanding of how stars evolve and influence their environments.”
Some stars save the best for last. The dimmer star at the center of this scene has been sending out rings of gas and dust for thousands of years in all directions, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed for the first time that this star is cloaked in dust.
Stephan's Quintet
This image shows five giant galaxies, containing hundreds upon hundreds of billions of stars.
Four of the five galaxies visible are actually interacting with each other, while the fifth (the one on the left) is actually much closer to Earth, so is nowhere near the others.
There are 150 million pixels in this image, and it’s actually a composite of about 1,000 image files.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI (Click image to see high resolution image.)
The First Image - Webb's First Deep Field
The first image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has been released, and it’s a stunning look at a cluster of galaxies from 4.6 billion years ago. (Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI)
“If you held a grain of sand up to the sky at arm’s length, that tiny speck is the size of Webb’s view in this image. Imagine — galaxies galore within a grain, including light from galaxies that traveled billions of years to us! Why do some of the galaxies in this image appear bent? The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a “gravitational lens,” bending light rays from more distant galaxies behind it, magnifying them.”
Webb's Deep Field
This image is a remarkable showcase of the Deep Field from the first Webb image, but in different waves of light.
“Compare Webb’s Mid-Infrared (L) & Near-Infrared (R) views. Lens flares? Nope, the spikes you see are when light from bright objects like stars is bent by the edges of the telescope. They’re less prominent in mid-infrared.”
