AASA Vending Machine

Artists Statement

Is it "fine art" or " commercial art"?  Is this a statement regarding the plight of individual artists or about how government funding for the arts is eroding?

Art inspires us, gives meaning to our lives and permanence to a society.  Art is the soul of a civilization. You can tell a  lot about a society by what it spends its money on.  Do you support the arts or buy a button?

The Adopt A Starving Artist Vending Machine wants the viewer to ask all the above, and this project wants one to wonder what life would be without art.  Why is it we choose not to support the arts and those who give their lives to this noble enterprise.
                   

2008: California State Fair Brochure, Sacramento, California: "I kept gravitating towards "Adopt a Starving Artist Vending Machine. It is a humorous, intriguing, and fascinating piece, and the more I paid attention to the details of the work, the more I was intrigued by it. I consider it a very successful work of art." (Juror's Statement Yoshio Taylor)