By Kirk Boxleitner

The next time you visit the Reveille Cafe at Fort Worden State Park, turn to your left as soon as you enter the cafe, and you’ll find a square, blocky, red-and-black vending machine. If you load four quarters into it at once, you’ll find the prize that pops out to be anything but “square.”

The vending machine is being billed as a “Wild Art Portal” by the Raw Art Collective of Port Townsend, and sure enough, the cards spat out by the machine contain miniature prints of artwork produced by close to 30 local contributing artists, who have chipped in 450 works of art, and counting, for anyone who’s willing to spend a buck in spare change at the Reveille Cafe.

Raw Art Collective Founder Jen Cohen was at the cafe on Friday, March 1, to inaugurate the machine, along with a few of the project’s participating artists, such as photographer Rick York.

“It’s all about getting art out into the wild,” said Cohen, who noted that the artists who submitted pieces to be distributed by the machine are listed at rawartcollective.org/wild-art-portal online.

According to Cohen, the Wild Art Portal vending machine is intended to remain available during the Reveille Cafe’s regular operating hours moving forward, and she hopes the 3-by-4.5-inch art pieces might help develop further connections between artists and viewers of art, especially since each piece of art comes with its own “homework” assignment of sorts.

After someone has popped four quarters into the machine, and taken the time to appreciate whatever work of art they might randomly receive, Cohen asks that they take a photo of that artwork “in the wild,” i.e. in the outside world, and either send that photo via email to therawartcollective@gmail.com, or tag @therawartcollective when they post the photo on Instagram, so that the Raw Art Collective might share the image in its own virtual galleries.

“You could compare it to geocaching, in a sense,” Cohen said. “A lot of love went into each piece of art inside this machine, so we’re interested to see how far and wide those works reach.”

Cohen hopes the Wild Art Portal will provide the public with unexpected opportunities to contemplate such creative works, not only via the novelty of a vending machine, but also because you can’t see what you’ll get before you contribute your spare change to help the Raw Art Collective recoup its operating expenses.

“Holding art can evoke delight, foster connections and open minds to new ways of being,” Cohen said. “This community has a lot of emerging artists, a number of whom haven’t yet had the chance to put their work out into the public sphere, so this is one way they can get their art out into the universe, and start getting reactions back, like a boomerang effect.”

While Cohen encourages diversity in the submissions she continues to solicit for the machine, she also requests “optimistic” pieces, to engender “positive vibes.”

York recalled Cohen requesting he submit “something quirky,” so he took close to 40 infrared black-and-white photographs of relatively nearby locations he visits frequently, from the Port Townsend Boat Haven to Chetzemoka Park.

“I agree with Jen about how exciting this is,” York said. “It gives the community a way to participate in the broader dissemination of art.”

If you’re a local artist who’s interested in submitting your creations to the Wild Art Portal, email therawartcollective@gmail.com and schedule a time to drop off your flat, 3-by-4.5-inch artwork at the Raw Art Collective’s downtown Port Townsend studio, with further instructions available at rawartcollective.org/private-invitation online.

For more information, call or text Cohen at 360-670-0430.