59. Hand Crafted

The video showing the sureness with which this gent (in Florida? Cuba? New Orleans? [check]) prepared his tin [check] strips for signage and then painted signs is one of my favorite parts of the "Look Both Ways: The Illicit Liaison between Images and Information" exhibit. Across the gallery from the Helvetica movie, the video is a great contrast and adds an intelligent, well-rounded study of words and images—or words as images.

The lettering artists reminds me of the itinerant painters such as Harley Warrick, who could paint—in six hours—the letters for a Mail Pouch Tobacco ad on the side of a barn. The signs show patience, practice, time and talent. Warwick's signs also show a sense of humor; according to the Wikipedia entry, Warrick occcasionally put three "c"s in the word "tobacco," just to see if anyone noticed. Speaking of which, do you notice anything in this squib?

[To check: name of the artist featured in the video. My unreadable photo of the wall label shows, "_ez?, Camp, Gossett.]




(For September 7, 2019, posted September 8).