Me and Dusty, my Roomba vacuum
A month ago I received an email out of the blue from a casting director to see if I would want to apply to be in Roomba’s upcoming content campaign called “So You Can” which will highlight various artists, lifestyles and family activities. Specifically, they wanted painters that use non-traditional tools, including palette knives which I use a lot when painting.
As it turns out I bought a Roomba last year (I call him Dusty) and have been totally obsessed with him. Last summer I broke my arm in a bike accident and found sweeping with one arm to be so difficult I ended up buying Dusty to clean the apartment for me. I love watching him drive all over the place, ram into walls, do circles and get himself out of crazy jams with electrical cords and other objects. So I was particularly excited to be in a Roomba campaign.
The casting director and I had a lot of back-and-forths and he told me the videos on my site were helpful but he wanted me to also make a 1-2 minute video of me talking about what inspires me to paint. I made a video of me reading a script which was probably not a great idea but better than me rambling. Here it is if you’re interested:
When I made my video, I thought of a bunch of ways to make it better (including being more human and less robotically creepy) but then I thought about how my goal is to be a good artist and not to be a mediocre actor for a vacuum commercial. So in the end I just sent the first take I recorded without a huge flub. If they want me, they want me. Otherwise it’d be better for me to focus my time on being a better painter than trying to pursue a fun but totally random one-off project.
They never did call me back which was a little disappointing but also a relief and totally expected. I think a lot of artists find themselves in the funny position of working very hard to develop their given artistic skill only to find themselves doing something completely different such as writing, teaching, lecturing or being in Roomba ads. I’m going to continue to pursue and be grateful for other avenues of painting related income but it’s tricky to know just how much effort you should put into pursuing these often fun but random opportunities.
In spite everything, I do love Roombas so here’s my pitch to get one even though they aren’t paying me:
I recommend buying the affordable Roomba 614 ($250) which is hidden on their website, sure it doesn’t have an app like the $900 version has, but you don’t need an app, you need a clean house which is what the 614 does. I also recommend buying a robot mop too. Since I’m not being paid by Roomba, I recommend buying the Shinebot W400 instead of the Roomba Braava Jet mop. The Roomba mop requires you to keep buying replacement pads which sounds annoying while the Shinebot just needs a brief cleaning after use. I love my Shinebot. I call her Dot my Shinebot mop bot.
So there’s my pitch. These robots probably won’t save you time as the “So You Can” campaign will probably suggest, but your floors will be much cleaner, the robots will entertain you with their antics and you get a new obsession of having your floors perfectly clean.