Documentary on Artist

UWG will screen the documentary film, Proceed and Be Bold! about the internationally recognized artist Amos Paul Kennedy Jr on Thursday Nov. 12 at 7:30pm in the Campus Center Ballroom 108.1.

Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. is an internationally recognized printing press artist, though he would rather be referred to as a “humble negro printer.” He tossed aside his corporate 9-to-5 job at AT&T with its steady income, chooses to live in extremely rural Alabama towns and goes wherever his art takes him. He found his calling making chipboard posters he sells inexpensively, so people can afford his art. His posters are socially, politically, and racially charged: with quotes from Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, and phrases like “coffee makes you black.” The documentary film Proceed and Be Bold! probes Kennedy, his friends, family, and colleagues in an attempt to unravel the artist’s meaning. 

The result is a discussion on the monetary and intrinsic values of art, the goals of an artist, the workings of race and culture, and what “the American Dream” really means.

 

Over 1,000 hand-printed posters by Kennedy will be on display in the Department of Art, Humanities Building  on the second and third floor. Kennedy will be present on Nov. 12, during the film screening of Proceed and Be Bold! in the Campus Center at 7:30pm. There will be a Q&A session after the screening and he will discuss his choices as an artist and the journey he has taken for his art. Directly outside the auditorium there will be a Cash-and-Carry Poster Sale and Kennedy will be available to sign posters.

 

This event is free to students, faculty, staff, and the public, and is co-sponsored by the Department of Art Gallery program and the Office of Institutional Diversity.

 

As part of the Print Dialogue Day symposium hosted by the Department of Art and the American Print Alliance, Kennedy will work with students on Friday, Nov. 13 in the Cobb Hall Printshop during a daylong letterpress poster printmaking workshop. This workshop is open to all UWG students. To reserve your place in the workshop please email Stephanie Smith at slsmith@westga.edu.

 

For more information, contact:

Stephanie Smith

Lecturer & Gallery Coordinator

Department of Art

Office Phone 678-839-4950