Today is the release of Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.’s monograph Citizen Printer. 

In the foreword to the book, I write:

Kennedy’s work is evidence of the head, the heart, and the hands together at play. His is a physical process, done by a human body in time and space with the real materials of ink and chipboard and wood and machinery, pressing them all together into something new. In this digital age, it’s inspiring to see someone using their digits. Among the many images in this book that bring me joy, my favorite might be the photograph of his ink-stained hands… To hold a thing in my hands that he’s made with his hands makes me want to make things with my hands.

You can read the whole foreword in today’s newsletter, “A Man of Letters.”

“Fine art,” said John Ruskin (1819-1900), is “that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.”

Many people like to quote St. Francis (1181-1226) as saying something like, “A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.”

The problem is, he never said that. The trail lawyer and artist Louis Nizer did, in 1948, in his book, Between You and Me.

So I only quoted Ruskin in my letter, “Head, heart, hands.”