We are always looking for artists in Elgin and the surrounding Chicagoland area who want to create art blocks for the vending machine. Please read the guidelines below and fill out the form if you are interested in participating.

The art for the machine is cut out of 3/4 inch thick MDF board in two sizes, 2 1/8 inch x 3 1/4 inch and 2 1/8 inch x 4 inch. If you are selected to provide work for the machine, you can pick up pre-cut blocks from us. You can also provide your own blocks as long as they fit the size specifications listed above.

In order for the artwork to work in the machine, it cannot be much thicker than the original 3/4 inch size of the wood. So gluing a piece of paper or two to the surface is fine, shellacking works, but building up the surface to make it really thick would not. Please keep that in mind when planning or creating your work.

Before being placed in the machine, each block gets wrapped with a piece of velum to insure it will cleanly slide out of the machine without damaging the artwork.

These small pieces have a wonderful, tactile appeal and may be someone’s first experience with buying original artwork. So we want to provide people with handmade and unique artwork. Hand crafted paintings, drawings, wood block prints, and individually created cyanotype prints are all welcomed.

Make sure to put your information on the back of the block or as a printed extra. These blocks are a great opportunity to gain a new fan. At a minimum, please make sure your name and website/social media links are easily seen.

At this time, we are only looking for artists located in the Elgin and Chicagoland area. The primary goal of this is to promote local artists in local businesses. (Although if you have displayed work in one of our shows, we would be interested in your participation.)

We are splitting the revenue with artists on a consignment basis. We will pay out $2.50 for each block sold. The remaining $2.50 is retained by Oddball Art Labs to help with operating expenses. Payments will generally be made quarterly, after the submitted blocks have been sold out.

If all this sounds good to you, please fill out the form on this page and send us an example of your submission concept so we can see if it would fit well with the other work in the art machine.