Converted cigarette machine dispenses original art works
Pacific University has one of four Northwest Art-O-Mats
An “Art-O-Mat” machine, such as the one above, sits inside the student center on Forest Grove’s Pacific University campus. The machine allows art lovers to purchase cigarette-pack size works of art. It’s one of only four such vending machines in the Northwest.
Courtesy of Pacific University / News-Times
The group of 20-something guys stood, hands jammed in pockets of tight fitting jeans, moppy hair hanging casually over their eyes.
The leader of the group – the tallest and lankiest of the trio – inserted a bill into the red and white machine, pulled a lever and picked out a white package. With his hip popped, the rat pack leader tapped the package into the palm of his left hand like a millennial James Dean trying to settle the tobacco in a pack of Winstons. He opened the package but didn’t take out a cigarette. Instead, the Pacific University student pulled out one of Portland-based artist Lebrie Rich’s small bling rings.
Last week Pacific University became only the second venue in Oregon, and the first in the Portland area, to house an Art-O-Mat vending machine. Art-O-Mats are old cigarette vending machines, refurbished with some buffing, paint – and, in some cases, glitter – space monkeys and parts from the board game Operation.
Then, they’re made into dispensaries for original art work.
Artist actually touched
“A lot of people on campus seem to be excited about it,” said Patricia Cheyne, a Pacific University art professor. “You’re getting art that the artist actually touched.”
The Art-O-Mat machine, located in the student center on the Forest Grove campus, houses cigarette-pack size pieces of art made by myriad artists, both local and nationally based. At Pacific, selections include jewelry, such as Eugene-based artist Brandi Crye’s tarot card earrings or local artist Ken Walker’s digital photographs, for just five dollars.
“When someone buys a piece of art like this, there’s a real connection being made between the artist and that person,” said Clark Whittington, creator of the Art-O-Mat machines.
“Buying is a process: You choose the piece, pull the lever and when it falls into the tray, it’s yours.”
Whittington’s brain child, now 12 years in the making, was first conceived while the North Carolina-based artist was working for a marketing firm.
“A friend of mine would have a Pavlovian-type reaction whenever he heard the crinkle of a wrapper from a snack purchased at a vending machine at work,” Whittington said during an inaugural lecture at Pacific last Thursday. “And I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have that reaction with art?’”
Thus the Art-O-Mat was born. Whittington’s first machine, which he purchased from a third generation vending machine manufacturer for $15, was showcased as part of a gallery set Whittington had in a small café in Winston-Salem, NC.
“I hadn’t planned on keeping it there after my show was over,” Whittington said. “But the café owner told me I couldn’t take it away because she liked it so much.”
Fourth in Northwest
Today, about 90 (the number fluctuates, according to Whittington) Art-O-Mats polka dot the United States in venues both small and large. Pacific’s machine is the fourth in the Pacific Northwest, and the first in Portland, an area that has been on Whittington’s wish list for years.
“Portland is just a very neat, do-it-yourself area,” Whittington said. “I’ve tried for years to get one here but it always fell through.”
This time, a little stumbling through the Internet made Whittington’s wish possible. Christie Norbury, assistant director of human resources came across the Art-O-Mat web site nearly a year ago and forwarded the link to Cheyne.
“I just thought it was a neat idea and wondered what we could do about it,” Norbury said.
Cheyne took the lead, rounding up funds from various student and academic groups, including Pacific’s art department. “The more we found out about it, the more excited we got,” Cheyne said.
Making connections
Pacific’s machine will be the only one in the area for at least a year, thanks in part to a year-long exclusivity lease the university has rights to.
“We don’t want anything to get competitive,” Whittington said. “Art-O-Mat isn’t about marketing or making money. It’s about art and making connections. We’re reaching out to people who have never bought art before.”
Whittington believes that art should be “progressive yet personal and approachable” and a part of everyday life. Art-O-Mat encourages people to make art a part of their daily landscape.
“Today people who have never used a cigarette vending machine are using them, buying pieces of art,” Whittington said.