allowed visitors to make their
own art on a letterpress and
take it home with them.
A few weeks later, Kennedy
got a phone call from CB2,
Crate and Barrel’s trendy sister
store. Executives commissioned
him to create Accept and Be,
a series of limited-edition letter-
press prints in celebration of
Gay Pride Month in June.
Kennedy’s work finds
an audience, Battaglia says,
because it’s both art and craft.
There’s art in the printmaking;
craft in the messages he prints.
The work is comfortable and
familiar, allowing collectors
to interpret and connect with
it in their own way.
It’s all part of Kennedy’s
plan. “The story, the message,
or the meaning of the story is
better served if you let people
discover it themselves,” he says.
The printer used to search
for proverbs, sayings, and
quotes. Now, 20 years into
his career, the words find him.
Collectors slip him tiny pieces
of paper scrawled with mes-
sages. Kennedy adds each one
to a growing list of phrases.
He doesn’t have to like them.
It’s enough to know someone
thought enough about the
phrase to give it to him.
“If you like it, there are 99
other people who will like it,”
he says.
Kennedy, 61, was born in
Lafayette, Louisiana, the mid-
dle child of five, and raised in
a Grambling, Louisiana, home
Left: Kennedy makes
adjustments to type
spacing. He says he
won’t ever print wed-
ding invitations: “It’s
too demanding on the
psyche.” And, he adds,
“I’m a sloppy printer.”
Right: A print from a
2005 series of 12 posters
featuring Rosa Parks
quotes. It became the
basis for a new interac-
tive publication called
Colored! Rosa Parks and
the Demise of Jim Crow.
“Proceed and be bold”
is what the late Samuel
“Sambo” Mockbee
often told students in
an Auburn University
architecture workshop
called Rural Studio,
which specializes in
improving living condi-
tions for low-income
communities. Kennedy
printed this poster for
an event in 2002, and it
remains a bestseller.
Kennedy makes paper
and books as well as
posters. He printed
the Jacob’s ladder-like
Cryptics
in 2002.
064 american craft dec/jan 12
