Tom was a brilliant man, kind and giving. I don’t remember how or when I met him, he was just always there. He was like a force of nature, seemingly eternal. He was absolutely better than most of the people I know put together. When he believed in something he gave it 150% , and he just expected you would too. He brought out the best in people. He made his art the way he lived his life, with excellence and grace. I don’t know how a man can live and be in America today and still have such innocence in his heart and soul, but he did. You could see such boyish glee and absolute trust that you wanted to play just as much as he did. He was good and pure and I can’t really say that about 10 other people I know.
He didn’t just want or wish that his friends and community live up to what he believed was right, he demanded that America as a whole live up to his ideals, and he did so in such an undeniable way. You can’t ignore a mac truck dressed up as a rocket complete with his wife and all her friends dressed up as the Missile Dick Chicks, I guess you could get mad at it (if you’re some kind of right wing jagoff responsible for the murder of thousands of innocents in the name of profit) , but you can’t ignore it. It’s there, in your face, stunningly beautiful proof and therefore undeniable. That was Tom, stunning, beautiful and undeniable. He had no issues with letting you know where he stood morally and philosophically, and his manner of putting it out there in the form of art was unlike anything I have ever seen before and think I will never again. He and I tried to collaborate on a project last year, and though I never got the funding, I was always sure that someday I would find the $$ to make it happen and he would be my first phone call, but now, no matter how much $$ I may or may not ever find in this life, those four flaming horsemen/bicycles of the apocalypse won’t ever be made the way he would have made them.
He was a one of a kind. We lost someone really special, and we all lost decades of brilliant art that can never be made. Haideen lost her best friend and my heart goes to her , they were only married a for a year and a half, and though they were blessed to have that, it still won’t ease the pain. The only thing we can do is try to keep his spirit and vision alive, and try to be the people he would have wanted us to be. Trying to live up the standards set by Tom Kennedy will be hard, but in his memory I really will try. We will miss Tom Kennedy terribly and forever, but I am thankful to have known him at all, for while he was on this earth he blessed us with his art and his vision.
-Phat Man Dee 2009
These are photos I shot from inside the Green Dream Machine Tom built , Burningman 2007 I believe. Tom and Flash and everybody showed up to my show at the Center Camp Cafe and afterwards and chauffeured me to my next appearance with the Apocalypse Stage Coach at the Steam Punk Treehouse, and here are some shots from that magic ride. Trust Tom Kennedy to appear when a girl needed him most, astride a neon covered oak leaf , like some kind of dusty knight declaring artistic vehicular war on pollution.