Evil Influences

Earlier this evening I had a lengthy phone conversation with Tom Huck. Years ago we used to do that all the time, but lately not as much, as he can be a hard man to track down. Tom is one person who can legitimately say he's busier than me. Very early in tonight's conversation he brought up something that he's said many times before- that he owes everything about his current situation as an artist to me. This is a bit of an exaggeration, but there is some truth behind it.

I met Tom when we were both in Carbondale attending SIU- me as a first year grad student in printmaking, him as a senior BFA student majoring in drawing. That year he was taking a couple of printmaking classes, and I got to know him in my job as the graduate assistant in all the printmaking classes. At first our conversations were more about music than anything else; we shared of love of the Beatles, and before long I got him into blues. The bigger conversion came during the spring semester, when he was taking lithography. I won't go into all the details here, but when things were looking bleak in the litho class, I convinced him to do a woodcut instead. Perhaps not the most logical solution, but it not only helped him pass the litho class, but also got him into an MFA program as a printmaker. While he was in grad school, I encouraged him to stick with woodcut when some of his professors tried to steer him in other directions. We both graduated from our respective schools in 1995, moved back to our home areas, and started our careers as artists.

Tom immediately started a series of large prints called Two Weeks in August: 14 Rural Absurdities, documenting strange but true stories about his small home town. A classic example from that series, Bed of Bones, is shown above. While he was engaged with that series, we were also working together to make names for ourselves, including organizing and participating in some group folios that were some of the first associations of what's now known as the Outlaw Printmakers. Before long, it was apparent that Tom didn't need my help with his career- his prints were being snapped up by an impressive group of public and private collections. His work got bigger and better, and his reputation has grown, so now he is arguably one of the best known (or most notorious, depending on your point of view) woodcut artists in the United States.

So does he owe me his career? I'll claim credit for putting him on the woodcut path and helping him stay there in the early years. But his talent, his ideas, his drive for success, his energy, his enthusiasm for his art, his willingness to put in the hours in his studio, that's all him. Of course, I'm happy to let him repay me for his successes, and he has done this time and again. His contacts have become my contacts, he's put me into shows, and several years ago brought me in as a visiting artist to his studio, Evil Prints.

A lot of tonight's phone call was a discussion of the ins and outs of the academic world, but his other purpose was to bring up the possibility of having me come back out to St Louis next summer to help out with the Woodcut Bootcamp program that he runs out of his studio. I'll post more details as I know them. Tom Huck's art is not for everyone, but if that image at the top of the post has you intrigued, you should go check out the Evil Prints website and see more of his brilliant and disturbing woodcuts. Not for the faint of heart.