Amos Paul Kennedy Jr is a letterpress artist from Alabama. He has been visiting Halifax this month with his work exhibited in one of the NSCAD galleries coinciding with the recent city-wide "Nocturne" art event. He also presented a couple of public talks and attended some classes at NSCAD as a guest artist and teacher.There is a gallery of some of his work on his website (www.kennedyprints.com). He designs and prints some terrific posters, including a great series on the virtues of coffee. Many of his posters are very clever and entertaining but many are also very serious in their message, dealing with a wide range of issues like racisim, civil rights, ecomonics, artistic freedom, etc. Apparently he served in the Peace Corps and also studied and worked as a computer programmer in previous lives, but left that behind to pursue the creative life of a letterpress artist. There is a very good article about him on the Daily Mountain Eagle website.
His visit to Halifax also happen to coincide with my last letterpress class earlier this week. He visited our class so it was nice to meet him and have a chance to talk to him a bit. And I saw him again today at the Gaspereau Press Wayzgoose where he was demonstrating one of their Vandercook proof presses and helping people print souvenir posters. I had packed up the whole family to go to the Wayzgoose, so my son got to print the souvenir poster - with some help from Amos.
8 comments:
We had a nice old proofing press, but we didn't have access to the size of poster type you are using.
Great fun for kids (and adults).
There is a section on our site about letter press printing.
Richard
i imagine you had the wee one in a sling...i like kennedy's work, just getting familiar with it. your son will remember these kinds of early experiences-for my family access to 4 universities and the cultural activities made our rural home a rich place.
I'm sorry I missed the Wayzgoose. I had hoped to get there, but we're still having vehicle problems.
Richard, yes this press could fit a nice size poster, they had another one even bigger, actually.
it's true, Velma, I had the wee one attached to me the whole time. thank you, yes I hope he will remember some of this stuff!
Niko, boo to cars and the troubles they cause! too bad you had to miss it. we were there just for a bit of the open house - we arrived much later than I had planned... i forgot how far it was to drive there.
What fun!
He was really nice when he visited here in Rochester for a fund raiser for the www.geneseearts.org
If you get the chance make sure to see the documentary he was in. It's really well done.
thanks Margaret!
Gayle, yes I read about that documentary, I'd definitely like to see it sometime.
Amos is so cool! He came to Univ of S. Alabama campus in Baldwin county for a talk on his letterpress art and then he stayed for a bookbinding class! He's a great guy and wears pink shirts well. :)
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