History & Background

Angelo Leopold Roker was born August 10th, 1929 to Lorenzo A Roker, an artist, calligrapher and Gold Leaf Gilder, and his wife Laura who was also a Gold Leaf Gilder and Antique Restorer. Angelo attended Eastern Senior School and a number of private schools and assisted in the family business of
lettering, antique restoration, gold gilding, and more.  

In 1950 the Butlin Visitor Village in West End, Grand Bahama offered Angelo a contract to produce their signs, lettering and posters for the resort. Angelo accepted and held the contract for three years.

In 1954 he left The Bahamas and worked as a seaman as an inexpensive means of traveling and gathering experience and obtaining information about many of the trade secrets and formulas for working in different materials and methods used
in the U.S., Mexico, Peru, Chile and other places he visited.

After two and one half years, Angelo returned to The Bahamas in 1956 with a lot of ambitious objectives but without any money to finance them. He reopened his studio and began painting and reproducing his originals and other saleable items on his own home-made silk screen rig.

In 1956, he taught the basic elements of lettering and calligraphy to inmates at Her Majesty's Prison, Nassau. He attended a number of seminars on the Lithographic Printing Process, and in 1970 began tutoring and lecturing art students and visiting
students to the Museum at Angelo's from various public and private schools.