Home of the Original Art-o-mat®

The inspiration for Art-o-mat® came to artist Clark Whittington while observing a friend who had a Pavlovian reaction to the crinkle of cellophane. When Whittington's friend heard someone opening a snack, he had the uncontrollable urge to have one too.

In 1997, Whittington was set to have a solo art show at a local cafe, Penny Universitie (now Mary's Of Course Café). This is when Whittington used a recently-banned cigarette machine to create the first Artomat. In June 1997, it was installed, along with 12 of his paintings. The machine sold Whittington's black & white photographs for $1.00 each.

This art show was scheduled to be dismantled in July 1997. However, Cynthia Giles (owner of the Penny Universitie) loved the machine and asked that it stay permanently and machine remains unaltered in its original location to this day.

Read more about the Art-o-mat project here.