Omahype: The Omaha Events Calendar

Written by Will Silvey Simons

Even though it’s been around since June of 2010, I’d yet to really get up close and take a gander at Omaha’s Art-O-Mat machine that’s currently resting at the Bemis Underground. During a recent trip to the gallery, I found out that for $5 you can purchase one of the 10-or-so choices of little artworks housed inside the former cigarette machine. Digging into my pockets, I found just enough cash for one item. I scanned my options for a couple minutes before deciding upon a little box with an image of five hand-drawn birds on a drooping wire attached to it. It was by an artist named L. Matthews.

Now, I had no idea what was actually inside the box (below), but the image glued to the outside proved to be a pretty good indicator.

Inside was a small piece of particleboard (3″ by 2″) with the same bird image printed in black over a hand-painted pink background — or at least I assume that’s the case. Flipping it over revealed the artist’s contact info and her intentions for the tiny piece of art: it’s supposed to be hung on a wall.

Luckilly, I had just the spot for my new art. There’s a charmingly-outdated bathroom where I live that’s adorned with pink tile on the floors and halfway up the wall (we call it “the pink bathroom”). The walls above the tile are painted sky blue. I grabbed a nail and hammer and now my birds-on-wire piece is perched on the wall. Well worth $5 to me any day.

Now, this might be the little boy in me, but I’m half-inclined to go back to the Bemis Underground and collect the rest of the artwork in the Art-O-Mat. I wonder how much the full set goes for on eBay?

-will

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http://www.artomat.org/

http://www.bemiscenter.org/