The first time I saw an Art-o-Mat in the wild, I fell in love with the idea. My husband and I discovered one during a weekend trip to Las Vegas at the Cosmopolitan, and after some quick googling we learned there were four machines in the hotel. We tracked them all down, and I was hooked. Becoming a participating artist has been a bucket-list goal ever since.

Art-o-Mat was created in 1997 by artist Clark Whittington. Each machine is a refurbished cigarette vending machine repurposed to sell small, cigarette-pack-sized works of art. Inside you might find paintings, prints, cyanotypes, sculpture, jewelry, fiber art, and more.

I’m one of about 300 artists who send work to North Carolina, where it’s distributed to machines in different locations across the country. Each quarter I receive a sales report listing the places my work was sold, and I love seeing where these tiny pieces end up. I joined Art-o-Mat in 2025, and my small batik paintings have already been collected in five states. If you’ve found one of my pieces, I’d love to hear from you!