The Hogscalders and Landfall Press

In this debut episode, artist Tom Huck shares the foundational story of his career, detailing the significance of his first print at the legendary Landfall Press in 1999. He discusses the initial challenges, and the vital role played by master printer Jack Lemon and dealer Bob Carlson. Huck narrates the journey from creating 'The Hog Scalders' woodcut to exhibiting at the prestigious IFPDA Print Fair in New York, highlighting how these experiences shaped his path forward. Join Darcy and Huck as he delves into the pivotal moments, collaborations, and life-changing opportunities that propelled him into the big leagues of the art world.

Transcript

Darcy 0:55

Hiya, Huck. Hey, what's going on? It is the first episode.

Huck 1:00

This is the first,

Darcy 1:01

the first

Huck (2) 1:02

real episode. It's gonna be rough.

Darcy 1:05

It's gonna be rough in the beginning.

Huck (2) 1:06

It's gonna be rough because of the quality of certain things we're learning. Like the video. We're gonna, we're gonna jazz it up as we go along here, but there's some growing

Darcy 1:15

pains. Yeah.

Huck (2) 1:16

So what do you wanna talk about today?

Darcy 1:19

Today I want to ask you about the Hog Scalders, and what about it? Is a print from 1999. It's a Woodcut. A woodcut that was published at Landfall Press. So in 1999, where this was relatively early in your career,

Huck (2) 1:34

it was very early. It was like the first, like four years of my, within the first four years of my career, and it's the first print that I did at the amazing legendary landfall press in Chicago under the, uh, tutelage and publication and printing mastery of, of Jack Lemon, the legendary master Printer. My opinion, one of the most important. If not the most important American master printer of, of the la latter half of the 20th century. Um, and he is an independent, amazing person and, uh, and with his amazing MAs, assistant master printer, I guess is what you'd call it. It was Steve Campbell. And so it was 1999, I was invited to do a print at Landfall Press.

Darcy 2:32

And why was that important? What is remarkable about landfall press?

Huck (2) 2:37

Well, that shop, especially when it was in Chicago,'cause they had later moved to Santa Fe, that shop published prints by artists starting in 1975, I think, until it ended in 20. 19, 20 20, it published prints by artists that Jack chose that were rebel rousers for the most and, and just amazing image and narrative based prints. And it grew in prominence, especially in the late seventies and the mid to late eighties because they published all these prints by the Chicago images artists like Ed Pasky, Jim Nut, Gladys Nielsen, um, Carl War, some, and all the Roger Brown amazing painters that were the Harry who is what they were called. The Chicago Images were also called the Harry Who, and they were this just, they were comic surrealist. Magic, realism, satirical, narrative based works. And Jack Lemon, did lithos with them and they became very famous. I mean, the, all those artists were very famous and Landfall Press became very famous. Big time art world prints. And so when I was in undergrad, probably my junior year, when I first decided that I wanted to do printmaking and the story's out there and I've told it before, I obsessed over when I pulled that first print in my beginning printmaking class, I immediately obsessed over the history of printmaking from dead guys. I already knew who Durer was, but from dead guys all the way up to what was going on now in contemporary printmaking circa 1993. So I went to the library. At SIU Carbondale and in the library I saw the book Landfall Press, 25 Years of Cont of American Printmaking or whatever. It was, a catalog book from MoMA, their 25 year history show was at MoMA Museum of Modern Art. And so I grabbed that book and I just, I just, that was landfall, presses, landfall, press the book land. It was a book called The Land, it was called Landfall Press, 25 Years of Printmaking. And it was the book from the MoMA exhibition. Okay. Museum of Modern Art. So I was all really, I was blown away by it because this was the contemporary stuff that I loved.

Darcy 5:36

Mm-hmm.

Huck (2) 5:36

So I just obsessed over over that and so I knew how important landfall was. So flash forward, so that's 6, 0, 6 years later I was outta graduate school and. Um, I had just done my first body of work two weeks in August 14, rule absurdities, and I didn't know what to do with it. There's a lot of stories around this, but this is one of them how I got my start. And so basically I had a friend named Byron Smith who was a, a small gallery dealer in Columbia, Missouri, where I was residing at the time. And Byron, I got to know through teaching a night class at University of Missouri in Columbia as well as like, he was also the janitor there at night and he was an art students. Wow. He, he was also the janitor there, and he, I would be in there at night. Over the course of about a year printing these woodblock prints from two weeks August. And they were big, we were printing them on a Charles brand etching press. So Byron was really, we got to know each other and he was really interested in me. And he also ran a gallery, a small gallery in town in Columbia. So I would hang out with him. And whenever I finished the two weeks into August set, Byron had seen all the prints and I was like, Byron, I, I gotta, I gotta, what I, what am I gonna do? Am I gonna like sell these or whatever? And he was like, you know, you need to show'em to a print dealer. And he goes, I know this print dealer in Kansas City named Jerry Vector. I go, really? He goes, it, it's Gallery V. And those of you in Kansas City that go back a long time, you'll know that name Gallery V. And I was like, what kind of prints? And he's like, the guy's a Japanese print dealer. Which is, I was like, okay, like, you know, like Ada Ksi. Mm-hmm. And Yoshi Toi, he dealt antique Japanese prints. He goes, that's the only print dealer I know. I go, okay. He goes, I got his phone number. I, I don't know how Byron got Jerry's contact information. I don't know if Byron had ever met Jerry Vector. So anyway, it's in Kansas City, which is two and a half hours away from Columbia. So I got Jerry Vector's phone number, and I called him and I was like, Hey, my name's Tom Huck. I'm a printmaker. I just did this big body of work. Would you like to look at my stuff? And he was like, I don't know. He, no one knew who I was. He was like, well, I don't really deal. Woodblock prints, you know, I go, I, he goes, I deal Japanese prints not contemporary stuff. I go, well, the prints are all about crazy stories from my hometown of Potosi, Missouri, and there's one of a, of a grease pig contest. And, and he was like, what? What? And finally, I think in multiple phone calls, I wore him down. Like I, and he was like, okay, how about you come out here on Friday and I'll take a look at this stuff? I was like, okay. Okay. Yeah. So you just kept calling him? I called him probably four or five different times and he's, he's a very super, super intelligent guy. Very tied in and tapped into what is going on in the Kansas City art scene. I'd never shown my work to anybody Really? Now. Yeah, I hadn't. This is ground zero. Oh, okay. So I drove the full set of prints. Out to Kansas City. I showed up at I, it's Gallery V.

Speaker 4 9:37

Mm-hmm.

Huck (2) 9:37

And I thought, oh, this is a big art gallery kind of place. No, it's his house. Okay. And so I go inside. It was very dimly lit. It was very nice. He lived alone, but he dealt those Japanese prints out of his home. Mm-hmm. He's a private dealer, you know, I know that now, but didn't know what that was. Then a private print dealer, and so I took out the prints and I laid them on his living room floor and I started telling all the stories. I. One after the other and how much I loved Durer, and on and on and on and about halfway through there were like 14 of'em. About halfway through Jerry's on the phone, he got went and got on the phone and he was like, Hey Bob, it's Jerry. You need to come over here. Like right now. You need to come over here. And I was like, what's, what's he, who's he talking to? And Jerry came back, sat down after the phone call, he is like, okay, keep going. And I went, go. I went, kept going and I finished. And by the time I had finished, somebody showed up at the house, his name's Bob Carlson, who is, was this gem of a person. Bob is one of the reasons that you and I are sitting here right now. So I get a little choked up when I talk about him. It's weird. So for the first time, so um, Bob was standing there and all the prints are out, and Jerry's like, okay, Huck, he didn't call me Huck. He's like, okay, Tom, repeat what you were telling me. Go through the stories again. And I started going through everything and there are these like 1430 by 34 woodcut, black and white woodcut prints that I had spent three and a half years on, not showing'em to anybody. This is the first time outside of Byron back in Columbia. And my ex-wife at the time had seen them all develop, and Bob was, I was telling the stories again, and Bob, at the end of it, he was like, Bob was like, okay, who are you? Where are you from? You did these all, when. How old are you? He start, he was asking me really serious questions. Uh, I told him, you know, I'm Huck. You know, I, I spent three years doing this body of work, you know, in my parents' basement and here in Columbia too, and I don't, I want to show these to somebody. He was like, okay. He goes, I'm a dealer, I'm a print dealer. And he was like, I would like to take these prints and I think I might be able to sell'em and show'em around. I was like, okay, cool. I didn't know who he was, what he did really, other than what he had just told me. He is a print dealer and Bob is a very sweet guy and he was like, okay, how many sets are you gonna print of these? I go, I don't know. I don't have any money. I just had enough money to make one set these boxes. I had to have a box made that was expensive, a clamshell black box, and I go, I have this set. This is. This is the set I'm just showing around. I wanna make 20 sets, but I don't have the money. Mm-hmm. To print those. And Bob was like, okay, how much does it cost to print another set? And I was like, this is all in Jerry's house. And I go, oh, it's gonna be a couple hundred bucks. And so Bob pulled out his checkbook and I go, Bob, I don't have a bank account. And he is like, okay, hang on. He goes, let me see what I got. And he, he happened to have a couple hundred bucks on him. He handed me the cash and he goes, Tom, go back. Print another set of these and when you're done, bring'em back out to me in Kansas City. Here I go. Okay. So I like, thanks Jerry. And then Jerry was like, well, we're gonna have a show of you here in my house. too Wow. So I'm like getting things started. This is the very, very ultra beginning of things in 1998. This is in 1998.

Darcy 14:21

So this is 1998. Yes. This is 1998. Yes. Fast forward. No, we're not gonna fast forward.

Huck (2) 14:27

So there's way more We're not, because this is very important. So what ended up happening was I went back, I printed another full set with Aaron Lovell who worked, he was my, he was a gra, he was an undergraduate student at wa at, um, Mizzou, university of Missouri. He was helping me print'em at night. And where were you printing out of at this point? At the print shop In the school. At the University of Missouri. Where you were teaching? Yeah, where I was teaching one class right at night. And then after that we would print my stuff. So made the set. There were no cell phones. I wasn't even emailing, I think at that point. So it was like Bob's word. I had his address and I called him, I think somewhere in this, I'm bringing the Prince after ready. He's like, okay, Tom, I'll see you on Tuesday, whatever. So I drove out, I drove the set that I printed him the full set of 15 and I drove out through this golf course it seemed like or something, and to Prairie Village, Kansas, which is a suburb of Kansas City. So I get out there, I get to Bob's house, I found it and I got got the the box out of Prince, and I took him up to his door and Kathy, his wife, answered the door and it was a very nice house. And I walk in. And Bob was down somewhere else, and she goes, Bob will be right here. He knows you're here. I go, okay. And I look around and there the house is packed on the walls with landfall. Press prints, huh? Everywhere at Pasky Print, Kara Walker, prince Jim Nut, prince Carl, Zen Prince. Were up, Cristos were up all through Bob's house. I, I knew what they were because I got, I obsessed over that book. Okay. Four, three years, 93, 5 years before it's when I found out. So you'd heard, you've discovered land, fall, press. You knew all fall. And so Bob comes up, Bob comes upstairs and he's like, Hey Tom, you got the print? I go, yeah. And he's like, he's like, great, let me see him. So I got'em all out and everything. I, we went through'em one by one on a big table. He had there somewhere in his house. And then. I go, these are, you got some nice prints in here. He's like, yeah, yeah. I go, these are all landfall press. And he was like, yeah, I'm one of land. I'm ideal prints for landfall. And I was like, wow, okay. I thought that's cool. And Bob was like, right away he goes, look, I don't know if what I'm gonna be able to do with these, I'll be in touch. I'm gonna show'em around and I might show'em to Jack. I knew who that was. I was like, oh my

Darcy 17:29

Jack Lemon. Yeah. I was of Landfall Press. Oh yeah,

Huck (2) 17:31

yeah. The big boss man at landfall. So he was like, I'm gonna show him Jack. He might like him. You know? And it turns out that Jack is, Bob is Jack's best friend. He wasn't just a dealer. So I'm on a, a path here that's very rare. Your shot. Mm-hmm. At the print world, the big time print world. So I didn't even know any of that. So I left. Bob was like, I'll be in touch, Tom. You know? I was like, cool. I didn't hear anything from Bob for a year. Not a peep, but I was getting really busy. I was starting to get attention. I had shown the Prince around, I had shown Prince to a museum and started selling myself to museums by then. Mm-hmm. That's another whole podcast. Mm-hmm. So another whole episode of how I did that. But, so this is now, we're in 1999, probably spring of 1999, and a year had gone by. I kind of forgot about Bob. Mm-hmm. And all that. And I'm, I had, I hadn't yet had the show at Jerry's yet.'cause those places, you know, even a small place like that, they planned things out a year in advance. Mm-hmm. So I hadn't had my show there yet. I knew Bob would probably be at that show, you know, but I wasn't thinking about. Anything coming from it, because I had other stuff going on by then. Other sales. Starting to get attention for the work that

Darcy 19:03

you were just doing through your own self-promotion? I was doing all my own. It was

Huck (2) 19:07

all myself, all of it. Nothing. I was cold calling museums is what I did, and sold directly. I had sold to a couple museums by then and then one day phone rang. I picked it up and he's like, Hey Tom, this is Bob Carlson. I was like, oh, hey Bob. I thought, oh, you know, he's gonna tell me the, his place burned down or he lost the prints, or he's gonna give them back to me.'cause he couldn't do anything with him. He goes, Hey. He goes, you got a minute? I go, yeah, what's up? And he was like, I showed your prints to Jack. I go, really? And he goes, Jack bought the whole set for me. I go. What he goes, Jack bought the whole set the other night for me and he, he wants to call you, he's gonna invite you to come to Landfall Press to do a project with him. I go, what? He was like, yeah, here's his number. You need to call him. I'm like, what? So I had Jack's number. I called Jack, I think at the shop and he was like, because of Jack's the way Jack, he is like, hi, hello. I go, yeah. He goes, Hey, uh, who is this? I go, is this Tom Huck? He's like, oh, hey, uh, so Tom want you to come up, make a print. You, you're gonna have to do the block there'cause it'll take you a long time. I go, yeah. He goes, how about you got two months? Do a block, then you'll come up and we'll print. I go, okay. I talked to Bob about the other particulars. I go, okay, click. I just talked to Jack. I'm doing a print at Landfall Press. This is my shot at the big time. That's it. And so I, I came up with the, with like this image of, I had to do the block at home. This is the hog scalds. This is now the Hog Scalders That's the print, the first print that I did at Landfall Press. And so I came up with this, just me sketching around. I came up with this hill image of a bunch, two hillbillies, like killing pigs and cooking them. And hog scalding is when they, they dip the pigs in boiling water and to get the, the, uh, hair off, they scrape the hair off with, with sharp blades. Yikes. And get'em ready to, to slaughter, right? Mm-hmm. And I have read about that, that or some shit. I don't know where, but it was. And then there's like. That's the scene. And they're boiling the hog, which is dipped in the, I think it's dipped in the, mm-hmm. I'm gonna look real quick. I think it's dipped in the bucket. I haven't looked at at it in a while. Let me go back here. Yeah. The body is dipped into the uh, uh, uh, what do you call it? A cauldron. Like a witch's cauldron. Right. I remember that. So, and I came up with the image. I drew it, I carved it. I was really stressed out because this is it. This I'm gonna be, that's

Darcy 22:18

a relatively quick timeline.'cause how big do you say it was? It's like what's, it's not small.

Huck (2) 22:23

No. It's like this is incent centimeters that I'm looking at here. So I don't know what that is, but it's like 28 by 30 something. Mm-hmm. 2038 by 28, something like that. And so I finished the block and. I called Jack, it's ready. And I can't remember the particulars of the arrangements of me coming up there, but I was married to my first wife at the time and we, we starving for real starving. We had no money at all, like cashing in change at the bank to like from a bucket bucket

Huck 23:19

that we had, you know, and

Huck (2) 23:21

no money, no gas. I wasn't made, I hadn't been paid yet. Like it was just the early be the starting out. And so we somehow scraped some money together to drive up to Chicago from Columbia. To take the block. So my first wife went with me, we drove it up there. This is my big day. I'd never been to landfall press. I'd never been to their shop. And uh, I think, I don't know who it was, like Chuck Close had been in there the week before me or something like these. Unbelievable. I, it was just unbelievable. So we drove up there and they had arranged for us to be in a hotel. All that was taken care of, like where we were staying.'cause I was gonna be there for like two or three days while they printed it. And so, um, show up there and PBS from in Chicago was there that day filming, not because I was there, they were just scheduled it. They lined up. So all, all of this first. Moments of me getting there and printing. I got video of it. Oh wow. And it turns out the woman who was filming it, there's a guy named Matt Hopson Walker who teaches printmaking at, I can't remember what school he is at, but his wife was on the PBS crew filming it that day. I didn't know. No kidding. Yeah. And so I ended up finding the video footage. She had it. So there's video of my first day at landfall. At landfall. First day. That's awesome. Printing my first block there on the Beast, which we're gonna talk about in part two of this. That's right. Uh, the press that is there that we printed that on at landfall. I own that press now. Jack gave it to me 30, almost 30 years later. He gave it to me when nightfall closed. So, but I had to go get it. That's another whole story. It's got its own story, but that's how it happened. And then I do remember one little story, like when you're watching someone else, because I'm, when you're watching someone else print your work for the first time at that level, it's something because you're ne you're, I'm used to printing my own stuff.

Huck 26:04

Mm-hmm.

Huck (2) 26:04

But when that level of printer takes over watching your work

Speaker 4 26:11

mm-hmm.

Huck (2) 26:12

It becomes, it's completely out of your hands, complete outta your hands. And I'm like, that's Jack Lemons. I, I had looked at all these pictures for years in books and stuff. That's Jack And Steve's in a lot of those pictures too. And they're printing my block. And so. I'm watching them ink, they inked it all with little speedball bras. Oh my gosh. They didn't use Tish bras. They were inking it with little, like a four, six inch. Yeah. Had the little, they had a six inch bras. Oh my gosh. They're inking it all that way and they're slow and deliberate and making sure everything's just right. And I'm watching and then they're like moving it around. And you'll see it in the video of them doing this. We're gonna post the video, right? We will. Yes. That'll be, that'll be special. Behind the scenes, behind the scenes, behind the paywall. If we're, you'll have

Darcy 27:09

to join our membership. You'll be, have to become a member for that extra content.

Huck (2) 27:11

So then they printed it, they pulled the first proof and I'm standing there and now this isn't on video. Um, because there what we got, we got, you know, but like, they put it up on the wall, they take the proof, they put it up on the wall, and I'm like standing there. Everybody's looking at it. And I don't, I feel like I have to say something and they printed it on a white, a piece of white, uh, like either something like Somerset, probably. Mm-hmm. Or Arches, I don't know which, which is Arch whatever. And I'm standing there and I feel like I have to say something. So I go, Hey, why don't we, I just came up with something. I go, why don't we print it on Buff Paper, which is like a off browny paper, like Creamy and Jack. Mm-hmm. Looked at me and looked at, then looked at Steve and he goes, did you hear that to Steve? And Steve goes, I didn't hear anything. Jackie goes, and, and Jack was like, I thought I heard a little voice. Oh, that doesn't know what they're talking about. Yikes, that's harsh, and I'm gonna ignore that little voice or something along those lines. And I was like, oh my God, Jack's mad at me. And, and Steve looked at me, he goes, and Jack kind of walked away to go do something else. Right? And uh, Steve goes, you'll find that when it's in our hands, it's not yours anymore until you sign it.

Darcy 29:03

Have you found that to be true?

Huck (2) 29:05

Yes, completely. It is theirs. And I was like, okay. And I had a couple other instances over time with Jack like that, but, but like, then Jack came back, everything was fine. There was nothing bad. But it was like, I was like, oh, and watching those guys print the way they move, the way papers handled, the rhythm that they have. The expertise, the level that they have. And then somewhere along the lines of that day, Jack was like, so we're gonna show this at the print fair at the Armory in a few months. I was like, wow. During print week at I, the I-F-P-D-A at the Armory in New York? In New York, I had never shown anything in New York before. Oh, okay. And I, I'd been to New York, but like briefly, and so like the hog alders is, uh, like the, so I think they flew me out there. It's my first time at print week in New York, and this is it. This is my first time really being seen, even though I had, there have been other things happening all along the time, along the line with. A couple shows, some museums purchased already, so I was kind of becoming a little bit of a known thing mm-hmm. At that level. But like with Jack and Landfall featuring me, it was a big fucking deal, man. Big deal. So I'm excited I'm going to New York. I'm like, yeah, I get to go to New York, and I think they paid for my hotel again. Mm-hmm. There's a, so the back, just one little thing. I remember like Jack, like re when we were in the shop printing The Hog Scalders, I've, I had talked to him about this since, but like, we were so poor, we didn't have any money to go get food while we were there. We couldn't go out. We couldn't go out. And I think Jack kind of picked up on that. He was realizing mm-hmm. They don't have any money. Mm-hmm. And so Jack like, gave, slipped me like a hundred bucks or something. He's like, here go. He did it secretly. So, and I was like, okay, cool. Alright, cool. So we had money to eat on, right? Yeah. So and so flash forward back to New York. Opening night, I-F-P-D-A, all the fancy opening night with all the OD d'oeuvres and the mm-hmm. All the black tie ish kind of attitude and ambiance at the Armory. I'm excited. I flew in and I go right over to the Armory and I walk in there and like, there's Chuck close. I saw him wheel by, you know, and it was just, it, it was the big deal. It was a big deal. So my work's up lit perfect at the Armory. Mm-hmm. In the landfall booth with just Tony Fitzpatrick was in the booth. Oh, there were a couple Peregrine Hons. They had a Carol Walker up and there. It's

Darcy 32:32

good company, man. See, and that's the first time you've seen your work among that company?

Huck (2) 32:37

Yes. So, and I'm, and they're standing Jackson all in black, and Steve's there looking like Steve awesome, like in his vest and bandana and shit, you know, cowboy boots. And, um, I go up to Jack. I'm all, I'm all excited and I learned so much in this one moment. I go, Hey Jack, I'm, it's great to be here. Awesome. And j and Jack, Jack know like, Hey, how was your flight? Welcome to you New York. How's it going? Glad you're here. None of that shit. I go, Hey Jack, what's up? He's like, I got good news and bad news for you, Huck. And I go, what's that? And I was like, oh, okay. He goes. The good news is the kids love your shit. The bad news is the kids don't buy shit.

Darcy 33:30

Ah.

Huck (2) 33:31

And I was like, oh, this is a long term career. This is gonna be a long haul Uhhuh. So, and Jack was cool. And then like, I got to see the print fair and everything, which is awesome.'cause you can go like flip through Rembrandt in a bin like records, you know, and stuff like that. And, uh, I met some people, met some print curators that night at big, big, big places. Jack introduced me to a couple people and, uh, we were walking. Jack was like, I,

Huck 34:19

let's go get a drink or something. So.'cause

Huck (2) 34:22

Jack likes Jack Daniels. So surprise, surprise. And so I was really just starting drinking and, but Jack bought me a drink. That was cool. But on our way there, there's this old dude that came up to Jack and I'm standing there like old, like 90 mm-hmm. Years old, came up, he was like, hi Jack, how are you? And, and Jack was like, Hey,

Huck 34:45

how are you? Oh, this is an artist, Tom Huck. And I

Huck (2) 34:49

shook this old guy's hand, you know, and he was cool and he didn't have, but he was like, okay, whatever. The 90-year-old guy was like, okay, whatever, Jack. So I got this set of prints and all this stuff and I was like, cool. And, and I go, who? Jack? Then the guy left and we went over to the bar and I go, who's that? And he goes, that was Will Barnett. And Will Barnett is like a major American pop artist in, in my second wife, our house. There's a famous, his poster from a show of his at the Met or something of a woman reading with a cat on her right, on her, her chest or whatever. Mm-hmm. It's a famous of his and I met Will Barnett, you know, like never somebody I never thought I'd meet in a billion years. So there, that's how I got my start. It was at doing it at that level was all because of Bob Carlson, Jack Lemon, Steve Campbell too, and Landfall Press. And so The Hog Scalders was the first pro shop print that I did,

Huck 35:52

that I was

Huck (2) 35:53

invited to do in a, that I wasn't printing it and I wasn't publishing. It

Darcy 36:02

sounds like it also created an entirely new network for you.

Huck (2) 36:06

Well, I'm gonna tell you what happened. I did, I did. This is will tell you exactly. What level we're talking about here in print world. Mm-hmm. I did the hogs, we went, I went the landfall. Did the hog. Scalders printed it. It was up at the Armory, like something like two months later and about a week after the armory, the Whitney Museum of American Art bought my whole set

Darcy 36:34

of two weeks

Huck (2) 36:35

in August. Of two weeks in August. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Darcy 36:38

So it was like bing bang, boom. You,

Huck (2) 36:40

when you, you know, that is like going and playing for the Yankees.

Darcy 36:45

Mm-hmm.

Huck (2) 36:47

Okay.

Darcy 36:48

Getting into the Whitney.

Huck (2) 36:50

Going to landfall. Going to landfall. It's like playing for the Yankees. Wow. High praise when you play for the Yankees. Yeah. Everybody could tell I'm a big Yankee fan. When you play for the Yankees, there's a pretty good chance that while you're there, you're probably gonna make it to the World Series. So like, whenever you go to landfall museum Oh, that's good analogy. Yeah. The museums look at what those shops are doing. Oh. So that is how it, it's really all, all of this is because of landfall. Mm-hmm. La and Jack and Landfall press put me on the map and they said that Jack has said that and he lets me know about it when I see him, you know, he's a very, very, he's not mincing words, very important. But also that night. That night I met Tony Fitzpatrick and like. Tony, I remember Jack saying, here's what I'm gonna regret. Tony Fitz Marick, here's Tom Huck. And I remember Tony goes, Hey man. Hey Huck, how you doing? I love the one of the guy in the wheelchair. He did. I go, oh cool. Which one was that? I've never done one in a guy in a wheelchair. I was like, I don't remember this print. I love the one of the guy in the wheelchair. You know? I was like, thank you sir. I met Tony. You know that. So that's, that's how it I got started. And the other thing about that is with landfall is Jack is the first person at that level who told me that I could do this.

Speaker 4 38:25

Mm-hmm.

Huck (2) 38:26

Myself. He told Tony the same thing. Tony by then had big cat press. Mm-hmm. His own independent storefront print shop in a city. And so I started thinking along those lines. Jack is, and that's a big deal when a master printer of that caliber tells an artist that they can publish themselves, because that's like anti what they're about. Mm-hmm. They, a lot of times people don't want to talk about this, but people that are in pro shops like Landfall, sir editions, brand X, crown Point, tandem Tamarind, ULA graphic studio, those kinds of big time blue chip print shops, they look at what self publishers do as like hobbyists in a garage someplace. Whether we like it or not, that's the way it is. It's viewed that way. People, that, a lot of people that, that are teachers too, that do their own prints, the big time print world, they, they, it's, it is kind of frowned upon. Interesting. They are about collaboration with artists and they don't usually its own those shots collaborate with

Darcy 39:50

print

Huck (2) 39:50

makers.

Darcy 39:51

It's like its own like art form. They're the printers and that's the art they're doing. That's right. It's the printing itself. That's right. And the technique of that.

Huck (2) 39:59

Right. So whereas the

Darcy 40:00

artists are more worried about the image.

Huck (2) 40:02

Yeah.

Darcy 40:03

And it's

Huck (2) 40:03

a truly, the printing is collaborative thing and a lot of print shops like that do not publish print makers. They publish painters that do prints, sculptors that do prints. Okay. Interesting. Because it's art world. Business driven stuff. Mm-hmm. So somebody like me making wood cuts myself from a basement in Potosi and Columbia, Missouri. That's a long leap. Mm-hmm. To the big leagues. Yeah, it is. And I'm a print maker. It's very unusual. Very, very, very, I can't look, go through the list, go online, look up the publications by most of the big time famous print shops, and you will not see a lot of people that only do prints on their rosters. It's all painters, uhhuh and sculptors, where print is

Darcy 41:06

not their primary medium. So they need the masters printers to help them. Oh,

Huck (2) 41:12

correct. It's a seeing it through. Mm-hmm. The projects seeing it through.

Darcy 41:17

Interesting.

Huck (2) 41:18

Yeah. Yep. Uh, my fourth or fifth time at landfall, they, there's a story with them and we're not gonna get into those, but like my fourth or fifth, every time there's a story attached with Landfall press, but like, so my fourth or fifth time there doing another print, they were cool enough to let me help Ink. Oh, that's cool. That's cool.'cause I was inking with their people. Mm-hmm. So, because they knew I'm a print maker, but they trusted my abilities at that point. Right. And I'm not a good printer. I hate printing. It's my least favorite freaking part of this. I like draw, I like coming up with'em. Uhhuh, I like drawing'em on the block and I love carving'em. And then I'm like, oh

Huck 42:05

God, we gotta print it now. You know?

Huck (2) 42:07

So, but there's the hawk sculpts now the image, what's going on in it, it's total hillbilly. Fever. Mm-hmm. Food themed, bad guys doing bad stuff to animals. Okay. And they're all, they all, one of'em is alive. One pig is alive. There's a crazy toothless, toothy kid with a lasso riding one of the hogs and stabbing it through the back of its head. That's, oh yeah, I remember that one with a giant javelin sort of pole thing. And then there's another dead one. And then the, the two hillbillies that are centered are, um, that are doing this to the, the body. The scalding. The scalding. They're scraping the hair off with machetes. Which is not what they use, but it's a freaking machete. Hillbillies love machete. And, and so I was really, that was really in the like vein of the two weeks in August. Mm-hmm. 14 rule, absurdity body of work. I was still doing that direct reference to hillbilly them. Okay. And I remember Jack had called me about when I was coming up there and he just turned me loose, do something, do a block, do us a block, we'll print it. And he asked me, he goes, what are you making? What are you making this about? I go, it's gonna be hog scalding about two hogs skulls. He was like, oh, I got, he's like, yeah, yeah, you dip the hog. And he's really knew what it was about. He got a kick outta what the subject matter was. Mm-hmm. So

Darcy 43:45

it's interesting in some way, you know, you look at other famous, you know, Missouri artists that people might know, like Caleb Bingham or, and Benton Thomas Hart. Right. And all the like river. It's all about our surroundings. And this is like a more satirical look at it. Right. But it is funny. It's like that surrounding is the same. Yes. If you drive around Missouri, you know, it is. You

Huck (2) 44:07

see, it really is. And I think it's

Darcy 44:08

a very different, like,

Huck (2) 44:09

look at it overall, I think what made Jack and Landfall, I think he's quoted somewhere in some publication about me that my imagery was very landfall because it's narrative satirical, cartoony, but technically very on. Mm-hmm. And I think Jack just responded to it right away. He, I do. They did not. Jack was surprised that I printed myself. He was surprised. And I think that that in a weird way, like it earned a little respect, stood out. It helped it all stand out to him. If I had not. Just think about what are the odds of pulling that book out of the library. And then, so that was, yeah, oddly enough, um, I told Tony this, I told Peregrine this other artists that have worked with Jack, that the book that I got was the first 25 years I was involved in the second 25 years of it. That's pretty cool. It was 50, 50 years by the time I, they closed and I had done five or six prints that second 25 years. I was gonna ask

Darcy 45:30

that. So the The Hog Scalders was the first Yeah. It was very pivotal, obviously. Yeah.

Huck (2) 45:34

Huge.

Darcy 45:34

And then you maintain that relationship.

Huck (2) 45:36

Yeah. There was, of course there was some like peaks and valleys with Jack because, but I don't wanna get into that, but like the, but the second 25 years I was involved in, I was the younger we were, me and Peregrine were the babies. The new newbies that came on the landfall scene. We were the young ones. It's inter, it's interesting, they kept it going at a time where I, I know that Jack was on the hunt for some young different artists. Younger artists. Kara Walker was one of those that he had started, but she was a few years before I got there.

Darcy 46:13

Well, it's cool that even though, you know, like as you said, landfall is closed now, but it is still kind of a full circle thing. Even in like EP land with Well you now having the Beast here and we've gotta talk, we'll

Huck (2) 46:22

talk about the Beast that's going be part two. We've got Steve Campbell, Steve, I have a relationship with Steve who, he came back stuff for

Darcy 46:28

me. He came and did etching at Advanced Wood Cut Bootcamp last year, year at our boot camp last year. Yes. He'll do it again.

Huck (2) 46:34

He's gonna do it again this summer, 2026. We, we own and use the press. That they printed the Hog Scalders in on. Mm-hmm. In Chicago. Back in, and we're gonna do a whole episode because that's a

Darcy 46:48

magnificent piece of machinery. 4,000 pounds,

Huck (2) 46:51

six, 7,000 pounds.

Darcy 46:52

7,000. It's

Huck (2) 46:53

7,000 pounds. Oh my gosh. It's, uh, and you can't take it apart. We'll do a whole thing on it. Yeah. But it's just the sound will will be cool. Yeah. But, so that's, that's the hog scholars, that's the story. You got any other questions?

Darcy 47:11

This is, uh, no, I think we got it.

Speaker 5 47:14

You think that's it? That good enough?