Writer spreading Valentine’s spirit through “love letter vending machine”
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - A Colorado Springs writer refurbished an old vending machine and stuffed the slots with more than 80 of her original love poems for people to buy retro style at the COATI food hall.
"Love letters are important!" said writer and artist behind the vending machine Jacqueline Moulton. "They matter. Love matters, right. Expressing ourselves matters, so to have the space to express is really important."
Moulton's machine takes quarters for her poems, with slots for 25 cents, 50 cents, and $1. The more the quarters, the longer the poems. The machine also opens like a fridge, where people can buy "love letter kits" dispensed inside aluminum soda cans with an envelope, decorated paper and a stamp.
"They say gratitude practices are helpful because it becomes a habit. Same with writing, but also with love, right? The more I take the time to express it and put it down on paper, the more that my brain becomes wired to see it."
Moulton first installed the machine two years ago. She has two other installations around Colorado Springs. One is similar to the Love Letter Machine called "The Mending Machine" at the Galleries of Contemporary Art at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. The other is a phone booth called "The Pity Party Hotline" inside the Auric Gallery. In the phone booth, you dial a number, choose an emotion and hear a message from the pity party.
