After our return from Alaska I drove headlong into summer classes, a couple of commissioned pieces and actually managed to complete a few small household projects that have been hanging over my head for awhile. Okay, so mainly it involved hanging some art that has been floating around my house for awhile but that counts right?
I thought I'd share this since I'm rather proud and pleased with how it turned out. Most of you probably know that I have been involved with the Art-o-mat project off and on for the past eight years or so. Art-o-mat turns old cigarette vending machines into art vending machines and so becomes a great way to collect original pieces of art. But after you have amassed your Art-o-mat collection what do you do with it?
When I was a kid my Mom re-finished an old milk crate for me to use as a shadow box. Mainly she wanted to keep all of my junk off of various dresser and desk surfaces. Well the shadow box was packed up in the attic after I moved out and I forgot about it. I re-discovered it a couple of years ago and realized it was the perfect size for displaying Art-o-mat art.
I quickly filled the first one and started to scout around for another crate. However, it turns out that the crates that are perfect for Art-o-mat pieces are a little bit difficult to come by. They are not the coke bottle sized crates that are in every antique store. The "right" ones have larger openings and only 12 squares. Perhaps they were used for quarts of milk, I'm not really sure. At any rate, I finally found one on eBay and convinced my Mom to re-finish it for my birthday. She says she forgot how annoying they were and that I am on my own for the next one.
Here's how it turned out!
The other project is not really mine. I just nagged Mickey until he finished it. Due to a huge amount of carpet glue left on our stair risers when we removed the carpeting, it was impossible to have them refinished when we did the rest of the floors. That was over three years ago. We have debated many solutions but finally settled on wallpaper. I know it sounds weird but I am in love with how it turned out.
So that's what we've been up to. Hopefully the summer continues to be productive!
If you'd like to know more about the Art-o-mat visit www.artomat.org I am beyond sad that we don't have one in Baltimore.