Art-o-mat artist statement

I had, for many years, known about art vending machines, but didn’t know the ones made from repurposed cigarette machines were the brainstorm of one artist: Clark Wittington.

In Fall of 2024, The local art gallery, ART123 in Gallup, New Mexico, that I helped found back 2010, sent out notices that they would hold a presentation by the originator of Art-o-mat. I attended the presentation and met Clark, along with several other artists, and listened to his history of the idea, and the details about how to apply as a contributing artist. The spirit of the Art-O-Mat, of getting small artworks into the hands of more art appreciators was very appealing.

I immediately knew I wanted it to be like some of the electronic parts sculptures I like to create. My Business Liaison, Genii Perry, suggested it be something like artworks I made relating to the Mad Scientist Club, a loose knit group of artists from my studios in the Silicon Valley, and other art installations I have designed and built, including the Kanobis Amplifier Research Facility (KARF). I also felt like there needed to be some graphic art booklet that helped explain the sculpture and listed some of my other on-line activities.

My intent is always to create art that is as rich with textures and interesting forms as possible, and of course, to fit the parameters of the end display presentation. In this case, a cigarette package. Over the next weeks, I experimented with wires, electronic parts, snippets of paper with scientific type symbols drawn on them, vintage card stock from old file folders. I liked a curve shaped card with assorted parts and coils on it that could lie flat on a small base and be bent so it stands vertically. The booklet resulted from dozens of small drawings of my own design, copied and reduced and glued onto a master. The master layout had several pages, front and back, that could be cut out and assembled into different booklets. Both the sculpture (eventually named a Klevisackle Filter Coil) and each booklet would be unique.

Klevisackle Field Coil Folded

Klevisackle Field Coil Kit