21 Jan Peekskill’s Bantam Tools: Plotting the Future of Digital Art One Dot at a Time

By Joshua Anderson for the Peekskill Business Improvement District

Art machines displayed through the window plot dots and lines, slowly creating a work of art at 107 South Division Street, Peekskill, NY. These machines—capable of drawing, writing and now painting—allow digital artists to bring their visions into physical space.

In this irregularly shaped space, a gallery of artwork hangs across the room—created by digital artists and brought to life by this advancement in technology. Visitors can watch in awe as art appears line by line, dot by dot, stroke by stroke.

This is not just an art gallery or a tech shop; this is the frontier of digital creativity leading a wave of new forms of art being expressed across the globe.

“We’re making stuff that hasn’t existed before,” said Bre Pettis, CEO and owner of Bantam Tools.

Bantam Tools makes professional and reliable computer-controlled art machines with precision to support skilled artists around the world who feel compelled to create digital art and bring that art to life.

Bantam’s retail shop/showroom is located on the first floor of the Flat Iron building next to the Peekskill Coffee House. They have two other locations in Peekskill—one, their headquarters and central warehouse on North Water Street and the other, just a few blocks down, for office and storage space.

Bantam Tools began as Other Machine Co., in San Francisco, California, before rebranding in 2017 and moving to Peekskill in 2019. Pettis is also the co-founder of MakerBot, headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, which pioneered consumer 3D printing at the time. After leaving MakerBot in 2016, Pettis purchased Other Machine Co. in 2017 and later relocated to the Hudson Valley.

His transition into a more creative approach with Bantam Tools was long in the making. Teaming up with his long-time friends at Evil Mad Scientist, the designer and manufacturer of popular computer-controlled drawing and handwriting machines on the West Coast, made too much sense—and it all came together here in the Hudson Valley. Bantam Tools announced the acquisition of Evil Mad Scientist, in 2024.

Bantam Tools core mission is simple: ‘we make exceptional machines for innovators.’ They offer four art machines: AxiDraw/NextDraw, which operate as pen plotters for drawing, handwriting, and design. The ArtFrame, a large-format professional machine for pastels, crayons and fine art media. The EggBot, which draws on spherical and irregular objects (ornaments, tennis balls, softballs, eggs). Their new painting machine, launching soon, is capable of watercolor techniques with human-like brush strokes and movements like dipping into paint.

For those invested in the machine arts, Bantam Tools makes it as easy as ever. Digital artists can create their original work or follow the work of a physical artist. They upload their files, prime the machine, press plot, and the machine begins its work while the artist watches, works on another project or has a cup of coffee.

“We’ve been really tackling painting, which is drawing—there’s just a lot of subtlety to it,” Pettis said.

There are examples of the work done by this new machine displayed in their showroom. Prices for their machines range from $499 (refurbished) to nearly $10,000 for large-scale machines that are nearly the size of two refrigerators. Bantam Tools is grounded in Peekskill. Their showroom serves as a storefront, but they serve a global market. They ship to Japan, Australia, throughout Europe, and across the United States.

“Our customers are a mix of artists, educators, and handwriting fanatics,” Pettis said.

The showroom is their public-facing space for education and community engagement. The location on North Water Street is their headquarters and factory space where they create, assemble and test the machines. Their other nearby location is mainly for warehouse space, extra storage and production support.

The staff is a mix of all different kinds of people, from engineers to artists and builders. They have a mainly local workforce, including graduates of Peekskill High School’s robotics program, who are eager to contribute and passionate about their work. Pettis serves on the Peekskill Art Committee, he is also the Founder of Peekskillart.com, which documents public and hidden artwork across the city. He stressed that Peekskill contains far more art than residents and vistors often realize and he wants to highlight that more.

Pettis loves art and he loves Peekskill, he enjoys amazing coffee, great restaurants, novelty stores and a connection to nature you don’t have in many big cities. He believes Peekskill is an innovative hub, filled with so many different artists that bring a unique culture to the city. The showroom offers shirts, cups, and branded merchandise for sale, but Pettis plans to expand the role of his showroom, beyond retail and into a way to educate fellow artists and residents–aiming to make art more accessible, visible, and inspiring.

“We try to keep the windows entertaining. This holiday season we’ve had Bantam Tools Eggbot Ornament Edition running in the window making ornaments,” Pettis said.

On the other side of the window, if you looked closely, you could see the handprints from kids as they would peer through the window.

Bantam Tools now has a new magazine with three issues out so far, aiming to release every three months, with the latest issue focusing on painting.

These magazines give readers a deeper perspective into the minds of these digital artists and how these groundbreaking art machines have contributed to their work.

Topics include Q and A’s with famous digital artists, explaination of how to maintain an art machine, news on the machine arts, some advertising, and a challenge at the end of each issue.

For example, in issue #2, the challenge is to plot your pet, inviting machine artists to create portraits of their pets, transforming the physical art into a digital drawing and then plotting it to create the artwork.

The magazine is available for purchase at $10 each, it can be bought at the showroom or through their website. They don’t currently sell a digital version because they like the feeling of a physical magazine.

It serves as an entry point for people who are eager to learn about digital artists and their work, helping to develop an understanding of how the creation of art can be done with these intuitive instruments.

“We make art machines that bring digital artwork into the world physically,” Pettis said.

Pettis is a successful businessman. He gave a final message to all those who aspire to start and run a business: “Starting a business is all about falling on your face and picking yourself back up again… It’s about confidence in yourself and having backup plans so you can fail… I think in general, starting a business is not for the faint of heart,” Pettis said.

The Bantam Tools showroom is open Saturday-Sunday, 10AM – 5PM, they are closed on Mondays – Thursdays. On Fridays, if they are open, it’s by chance. You can reach them at (347) 422-6826.

They can be found online, https://bantamtools.com, on Facebook at Bantam Tools or on Instagram @bantamtools and @machineartsgallery.

(C) 2026 Peekskill Business Improvement District. Photos by Joshua Anderson. Edited by Bill Powers.  If you are a downtown destination business, and would like to be considered for an upcoming profile article, please email us at peekskillbid1@gmail.com.