Tom Kennedy Memorial, A Celebration of Life

Tom Kennedy Memorial

Tom Kennedy Memorial

Tom Kennedy Memorial

Tom Kennedy Memorial

Phat Man Dee

Tom Kennedy Memorial

Ripper The Friendly Shark

Tom Kennedy Memorial

Tom Kennedy Memorial

Tom Kennedy Memorial

Tom Kennedy Memorial
photos by Scott Beale

On Friday the community came together to celebrate the life and art of our friend Tom Kennedy, who passed away on April 12th in a tragic drowning accident.

video by Puzzling Evidence

Ed Holmes kicked things off Friday afternoon during the pouring rain with a dedication to Tom at Land’s End on Ocean Beach in San Francisco, the place where Tom left this world. That was followed by an art car caravan (including some art cars that Tom had built) through San Francisco and then over to American Steel Studios in West Oakland where there was a beautiful memorial set up for Tom. It was a wonderful celebration for an amazing man.

When we arrived at the memorial, we walked past the row of parked art cars and came upon the trio of Doggie Diner dog heads. The only place it was raining inside of the cavernous American Steel space was right on top the first dog head, making it appear almost as if he was crying, mourning the loss of our friend Tom.

Photo Gallery: Tom Kennedy Memorial

Artcar caravan to Tom Kennedy memorialphoto by Ken Duffy

Here are more photos by Ken Duffy, including the art car caravan.

Scott Beale
Scott Beale

Scott Beale founded Laughing Squid in 1995 in San Francisco and is currently based in New York City. When not running the blog, Scott can be found posting on Bluesky and sharing photos on Instagram.