Jeff Soto's Blog

Went to the supermarket today to use one of those Coinstar machines. You know, the ones where you put all your loose change in. We're moving out in a few days and I thought it's about time to get rid of the two jars of change we have sitting here. One of the jars has been filled up for about 8 years, and I'm pretty sure some of that change is from when I was a kid.

So at the Coinstar machine, when it tries to process a coin and it's not U.S., it spits it out. I thought this was the coolest part, seeing all the weird coins and objects that get rejected.

I found a Chucky Cheese coin, no idea where it came from. Says it's from 1990 but I haven't been there since the 80's. There was a Concourse Bowling Alley coin- I remember oing there with my brothers about 5 years ago. I also found this thick coin that said $100, and I got all excited for a sec but I think it's actually 100 pesos. Cool looking coin though..

Found this San Diego penny. It's from one of those machines that smashes a penny (that you provide) for a couple bucks. I think it's from when me and my brother Jesse stayed on Coronado Island with my Aunt Debbie and cousin Amber. 89 or 90 I think.


Speaking of smashed pennies, check these out. I'm sure many of you have made these, they're flattened by trains. You just lay out a bunch of pennies on the tracks and wait for a train to come by then desperately try to find the coins which will be scattered all over. Dimes work real well too, they get thin as knife blades. Nickels and quarters don't work as well but they're thick enough that you can hear then getting run over. That penny with the half circle notch was from overlapping 5 or so pennies. We were hoping they'd fuse together or some shite but it didn't happen.
Then I found a weird coin that looked strangely familiar. I remembered what it was as I flipped it in my hand. When I was 10 I had this notion that I could flatten out nickels and make them into quarters. Turn 5 cents in 25. I spent a day smashing and shaping nickels, trying to get them the same circumference as quarters. I was going to use them in vending machines. I don't think it worked but this is one of the nickels that somehow over the years has stuck around. And it's actually pretty close in shape to a quarter.




Last I found these rejected "jems". A washer, a gear, a bead. And my old Target pin. It used to be white and red but it looks kinda cool as it has aged. It reminded me of how much I take for granted these days and how hard I've worked to get where I'm at. Pushing shopping carts in 106 degree heat really blew, it was hard labor- we didn't have a Cartmaster 5000, we had to actually use our muscles. And very under appreciated (rarely a thank you for my hard work), but I still took pride in my work. I could have easily blown it off and said the hell with it but for some reason I tried hard to do my best. I guess I felt lucky to even have a job. I always try to think back to working out in the elements, daydreaming about the future while pushing unending lines of carts to waiting shoppers, carving a J+J in the tree by the Garden center, seeing my breath float up in the cold rainy nights. Life was simpler eight years ago. Not that I would ever want to go back in time but it's always good to look back and see what happened.

Okay, some art stuff- many people have been asking about the giclee I have coming out, called "Savior of Nature". I will have more info soon, I'm meeting with the printers tomorrow, and depending on how the first round of proofs look, I may do a preorder. I am working on pricing, it will be between $400-$500 and the edition is 50 prints + 3 AP's. I will know more tomorrow. We're moving soon so I might be out of touch the next few days, but I'll get the info out as soon as I can. Here is the giclee....

Oh yeah, ended up we had over $100 of change sitting there. I had no idea, I estimated about $20 so I was pretty happy.
-Jeff