Back On Washington Avenue: Evil Prints

Tom Huck, owner of Evil Prints, is a mad genius. He is a maker of woodcut and linoleum prints with enormous skill. Huck even has gallery representation in New York. However, his imagination is twisted, and that's an understatement.

A portrait of Huck and some info about his work was posted here a few years ago. To get a sense of how weird his stuff is, you can check out his latest series of images, The Hillbilly Kama Sutra, here (mature audiences only, please).

The scene is at 16th and Washington in St. Louis.

Thanks to all of you who left comments on my then-and-now photography post yesterday. I agree with the note from Buck of Schenectady DP. The second picture is far superior, IMHO. The first one is exotic to Western viewers but it's static. The color and light are flat. The second one crackles with electricity, giving the viewer of what's it's like after sunset around Times Square.

Portraits of St. Louis Artists: Danielle Spradley

She looked up at me as I took this picture with an expression that seemed to say, "Excuse me? I'm trying to get some work done here, okay?" However, Spradley, master printer and shop manager at Evil Prints (see the first post in this series about Tom Huck, the proprietor), could not have been nicer about letting me photograph her at work. In this picture, she is using tools and techniques similar to Huck but she has a very individual style. Her images remind me of the original pictures of the aliens in War of the Worlds as revised by R. Crumb (one of my cultural heros) and remixed by Marcel Duchamp. Check out her work here and here.

That's all for St. Louis artists portraits for now. Let me know if you liked the series. I've got a couple of leads and it may return on an irregular basis in the future.

WHAT WAS GOOD AND BAD IN MY DAY TUESDAY: Good - I got my precious Canon 5D back from the factory service center after the third repair for the same problem. It $%#^@ well better keep working this time. Bad - I had to talk to more crazy, annoying people at work than anyone should (and I never even looked in the mirror.) I guess I signed up for it.
TOMORROW: The Thursday Arch Series Returns.

Portraits of St. Louis Artists: Tom Huck

I did not know about Evil Prints until last weekend's studio open house (must be getting old and out of touch). The place is full of young artists covered to one degree or another in tattoos and flesh-eating steel hardware. Tom Huck here is one of the mainstays. He's the kind of person the phrase "fevered imagination" refers to. Tom makes outrageous wood and linoleum cut prints. Check out examples of his work here. While I watched him work, Tom used only tiny hand tools. I cannot imagine my own hands working with such precision.

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY: Frank Zappa's perky composition Peaches En Regalia was inspired by his love of the sculpture of Alexander Calder. Thank you, National Public Radio.

TOMORROW: The Thursday Arch Series takes a week off as St. Louis artists portraits continue with Craig Downs, painter and singer