THE BALLAD OF HUCK & MIGUEL

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
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Paper Size: 6 x 5.5 in.
Image Size: 3.5 x 2 in.
2017

"Now it was just a hole right out to the sky, and I could see the clouds floating by. I thought in just a minute or two I’m going to be as free as those clouds. The hole warn’t big enough for a grown man to go through but I can make myself pretty small and slithery when I want to, so I pulled myself right up and through the hole. And – before you even knowed it – I was on the roof of the camper and then coming down that ladder on the back."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 35.
---

Paper Size: 7.3 x 6 in.
Image Size: 3.65 x 3.7 in.
2017




 

"This was my chance for a real adventure so I started walking toward those mountains. I stopped to uricate and decided that I could do a good turn so did it right on top of a little flower that looked like it needed a drink real bad. Pretty soon I came to strangest lake you ever did see. It was flat and still, most dead like. And it smelled worse than a skunk that’s been dead near on two week. On the shore there was piles and piles of dead fish, rotting in the sun. The bulk of them warn’t even fish no more but just skeletons."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.

---
Paper Size: 7.3 x 6 in.
Image Size: 4 x 4.25 in.
2017




 

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 6 x 11 in.
Image Size: 6.5 x 2.6 in.
2017




 

"It warn’t long before I saw what Tom was talking about. There was crawfish in the river, and I stabbed one good with my blade and held it up for Tom to see. He was a-wiggling and trying to get me with his claws, and I couldn’t hardly blame him. But it warn’t long before he started slowing down on account he was dying."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 6 x 11 in.
Image Size: 6.75 x 3.3 in.
2017

"We watched ‘em for a while. It was an awful bully sight. They was coming from the other side of a mountain, but it felt like they was shooting right up over our raft and meant just for us."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.

---
Paper Size: 11x15 in.
Image Size: 11.85x9.3 in.
2017




 

"There was a monstrous ghostful hooing just then, and I looked up to see an awful big owl in a tree just above us. But I couldn’t see him right and clear, just his shadow against the sky, which was already beginning to get a little bit light. I know you think that Los Angeles is a big city and that’s it just thousands and thousands of people and cars and skyscratchers and no animals anywhere, ‘cept the ones that people keep in their houses as slaves. But I’m here to tell you different. There’s all sorts of critters running free and clear in Los Angeles, and some of ‘em is just as wild as anything you’d see in the deepest darkest part of the woods back home in Missouri. I wouldn’t ‘a’ believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 6x11in.
Image Size: Image Size: 4.1x7.85 in.
2017




 

“Be very still. Do not move.” His voice was quiet and full of seriosity. That’s when I heard the rattle. I turned and saw it. There was a rattlesnake on the Colonel’s blanket he’d given us. The snake must’ve been sleeping in there, and he warn’t none too happy to be disturbed. He was so close to me I could’ve reached down to touch him if he was more friendly like. But he was ready to strike me dead, and now my heart really jumped. I didn’t want to move, but I couldn’t help it. It was my instinctuals taking over, but it warn’t the right time. My foot moved, and the snake he lunged out for me."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---

Paper Size: 7.5x7.3 in.
Image Size: 4.25x4 in.

2017

"After we passed, it was awful quiet, and you’d ‘a’ never knowed that we was in the city. I heard a funny kind of a dog bark, and then a howling. It warn’t too near, but it warn’t that far neither. Pretty soon there was a couple more barks, and then came all such barking and howling as you can imagine, and some screeching too. It was such a kermotion it most gave me the fantods."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.5x7.3 in.
Image Size: 4.2x4.45 in.
2017




 

"As you know, I ain’t never been much for praying. But I reckoned that there was times that called for it, and a body had to make adjustications to the situation sometime. You see, it was Miss Watson that had got the worst of Pap’s attack with his knife. Judge Thatcher took me to see her in the hospital. She was lying real still and couldn’t talk or move or nuthin. The Judge left me alone with her, and I felt mean and lowdown to think that it was my blood relative that done it to her."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.5x7.3 in.
Image Size: 5.75x5.3 in.
2017

“Don’t give me none o’ your lip! I know you done it.” I’d gotten ‘Im stirred up again, so now he got up and came and waved the gun at my face, and I had to turn my head up to look into his rabies eyes. “Didn’t I bring you here so as we could have a better life? Didn’t I? That’s what a father does for a son.”

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 20.
---
Paper Size: 7.5x7.3 in.
Image Size: 6x4.6 in.
2017

Egrets. Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.5 x 7.3 in.
Image Size: 6.9 x 3.8 in.
2017




 

"But it didn’t neither mean that I gave up on adventuring out in the wild. Sometime you hear that big cities ain’t got no critters but just people and rats. Los Angeles ain’t that way at all. And Miguel he had a way with the critters, even the wild ones. He knowed all the names of the birds and what they’d eat and where they’d prefer to make their nest. One night, just as the sun was going down behind the mountain, he took me out to a hill where we could look out into some trees and he showed me a nest. It was a raven’s nest, and I hadn’t never seen one before. It was a monstrous proud bird, and Miguel said that sometime they’d even chase a hawk or an eagle, if they didn’t want ‘em around. Miguel said they was one of the smartest birds too and could learn to talk a few words, if you had one as a pet. There was three chicks in the nest that we could see. They was grey and fuzzy, most like baby rabbits, and not black like a proper raven that was full grown."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.5 x 7.3 in.
Image Size: 6 x 4.2 in.
2017

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.5 x 7.3 in.
Image Size: 5 x 4.05 in.
2017




 

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.5 x 7.3 in.
Image Size: 5.25 x 3.7 in.
2017




 

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.5 x 7.3 in.
Image Size: 6 x 4.6 in.
2017

"Now Pap was a lot smarter than you’d think, especially when he warn’t on the bottle. He knowed right away where I’d been and warn’t none to happy about it. He chased me round and round, and I stayed free pretty good. But finally he got holt of me and smushed my face down into the little table where we ate. I knowed I was in for a whupping when I heard his belt slide through the loops like a copperhead a-sliding through the branches of a tree."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 20.
---
Paper Size: 7.3 x 10 in.
Image Size: 5.1 x 6.3 in.
2017

"When the day came, the lawyers got me all dressed up so as to make the jury think that I was a good boy, all dismal regular and decent. I was mighty uncomfortable, and my shoes they made a clomping sound that would’ve scared off a bear. They called my name, and I had to walk into a little wooden box and swear on the Bible that I warn’t going to lie. Then they told me to point to the man who shot and killed Ivan."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.

---
Paper Size: 7.3 x 6 in.
Image Size: 3.75 x 4.85 in.
2017

"Well then I heard a loud crack, and I knowed right away that we was being shot at. My first idea was that it was the ‘thorities, but I looked behind me, where Miguel was looking, and I seen the camper right away. It was parked on car bridge overlooming the river, and Pap was standing there with a gun. And he was a-trying to kill us both dead. I knowed right away what had happened."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 20.
---
Paper Size: 7.3 x 10 in.
Image Size: 5.3 x 6.25 in.
2017

"After a time we started in to exploring again. We clumb up a fence to get on t’other side where there was a building most dead and abandoned. Tom Sawyer said that he had been avoiding it on account there was rumors that the building was a-haunted but that he reckoned atwixt the two of us we could fight off any ghosts or ghouls that might make an appearance.

Tom breaked a window on the first floor, and we clumb up through the hole being careful not to scrap ourselves up on the glass. I followed Tom Sawyer up to the second floor. It was dark inside ’cept for little shards ‘a light that came in through cracks in the walls. And it smelled something like the cave back home but different too, like there was things growing on the walls. It was so strange and quiet I got a real case of the fantods."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 20.
---
Paper Size: 7.5 x 11 in.
Image Size: 5.2 x 7.9 in.
2017

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.3 x 10 in.
Image Size: 7.5 x 4.5 in.
2017




 

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 20.
---
Paper Size: 7.3 x 10 in.
Image Size: 7.4x2.7 in.
2017




 

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.3 x 10 in.
Image Size: 7.05 x 4.55 in.
2017




 

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 20.
---
Paper Size: 7.3 x 10 in.
Image Size: 8 x 3.75 in.
2017

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.3 x 10 in.
Image Size: 8.25 x 3.1 in.
2017

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.3 x 10 in.
Image Size: 7.75 x 3.25 in.
2017




 

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.3 x 10 in.
Image Size: 7 x 4.25 in.
2017

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.3 x 10 in.
Image Size: 7.75 x 4.45 in.
2017




 

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.5 x 11 in.
Image Size: 8.65 x 4.7 in.
2017




 

"Well I watched Miguel give hisself that shot. I never seen anybody braver. His hands was a-shaking, and there was sweat dripping all down his face. But he done it, and pretty soon we was back on our raft. He warn’t in any shape to talk or even set straight up. So he layed down and closed his eyes, and I got to navigating us down the river. I wanted to get as far aways from the Duke as I could get. He warn’t no friend to us, and I knowed it."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 20.
---
Paper Size: 7.5 x 11 in.
Image Size: 4.15 x 7.6 in.
2017

"Later that day Ms. Douglas took me to see her work, which was in one of the very top floors of one of them skyscratchers. It was monstrous tall, and the elevator made you feel like your insides was sloshing around. She ‘splained to me that she was something called a management insultant. Far as I could tell, it meant that she didn’t have to do work all day but instead spent all her time telling other people how to do their work or even speculating on how they might could do it better if they did something different. Well, I don’t never want to work in a skyscratcher, but if I do, then I might could be a management insultant, like Ms. Douglas, since I’d ruther be the one telling other folks what to do than the other way round, ‘though of course I prefer to be free and clear and everyone else too."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.5 x 11 in.
Image Size: 4.35 x 7.5 in.
2017

"When we got back I went right to the stable to help Miguel with the horses. My main job was to groom Carolina, which she loved. First there was a special tool that you can use to pick all the dirt out of her hooves. And then you’d brush her, first with a hard brush that would get all the dirt and mud off ‘a’ her body and then with a soft brush that would make her hide look all shiny and clean. The brushing made her feel good I could tell, and it remembered me of when my mama would scratch and rub my back. It was so long ago she went away that I couldn’t recollect all the particulars but only just the feeling, which was awful warm and comfortable."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.5 x 11 in.
Image Size: 5.65 x 7.25 in.
2017

"I didn’t stay asleep all night. No, I woke up soon enough, and you’ll see that I had a good reason to. I opened my eyes, and I was full awake right away, not like normal when it takes some time. I seen her right away. It was a woman on the shore. When I set up to get a better look, I seen that she was dressed all in black, and she had one of them fabrics hanging over her head, so as you couldn’t see nuthin but the shadow of her face. Well, right away I knowed she was either a ghost or a witch, or at least I suspicioned so. She was a-weeping too – I could hear her – and she seemed to be looking for someone or something that she’d lost."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
----
Paper Size: 7.5 x 11 in.
Image Size: 5.8 x 8.1 in.
2017

"This part of the river was wild again, and there was all kind of critters out in the middle of the night. Me and Miguel was real quiet then, so they warn’t afraid of us. We saw a whole family of coons washing their paws in the water. And there was a funny little bird hiding back in the bushes on the side of the river. The top of his head was black, most like a top hat. But he didn’t bother us none."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.5 x 11 in.
Image Size: 4.55 x 8 in.
2017

"But my hand warn’t even all the way through when I heard a little tinkle from behind me. Well I just about jumped out of my hide and spun around. There was a man there, on the porch. He was old and wrinkled up with skin brown like a grocery bag. His hair was long and white and pulled back in a donkeytail like a girl. But he warn’t no girl."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 20.
---
Paper Size: 7.5 x 11 in.
Image Size: 4.35 x 7.5 in.
2017

"You’d never think but the beach in Los Angeles is like a circus, only better ‘cause you don’t gotta pay nuthin to get in. There was a whole group of people who had wheels on their shoes and real frilly costumes and they was dancing and rolling around like they was birds or maybe fish in the sea. There was a man who had a saber that he stuffed down his throat most like it was a piece of food. The saber was so long that Buck and me thought maybe it would come right out of his stomach, but it never did. After he took the saber back out of his mouth, every body cheered to see that he warn’t dead, and then he took his hat off and everybody pulled out their wallets and purses and gave him all such money as they had, prob’ly as payment so as he wouldn’t try it again. Then there was a woman who was most covered in snakes, even with one big yellow ‘un wrapped around her neck on account it was hoping to eat her for lunch. Well it most gave me the fantods to see it, but it was monstrous bully too. Those snakes was so big they must ‘a’ come from the jungle or somewheres real far from Missouri or even California."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 20.
---
Paper Size: 7.5 x 11 in.
Image Size: 5.7 x 6.6 in.
2017

"At night I’d lay under the lean-to and look out the open end up at the sky and watch all the stars turn through the black like they was on a giant wheel. I thought about all the folks out in California and I got to wondering if they saw the same stars as me or whether they might see different ones altogether. Or maybe they might not see stars at all but just diamonds in the sky hanging still from silk threads."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.3 x 15 in.
Image Size: 4.25 x 9.2 in.
2017

"There was some mountains way out yonder, and the sun was just about set to disappear beneath ‘em. And down below was a city that ran most as far as my eyes could see. It warn’t a proper city with skyscratchers all crammed right next to each other, but it was more flat like, with long roads and highways with all sorts of cars and trucks and even motorcycles."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.5 x 22 in.
Image Size: 4.75 x 17.5 in.
2017

“Afore you knowed it, I was on the trail and I could hear Miguel following behind. I went straight for the wooded part, where the ’copter wouldn’t be able to follow us so good on account of all the trees.
'The creek! We have to make it to the creek!' I looked back to make sure he was still following fast behind. 'It’ll take us all the way down to the river. It’s the fastest way out. It’ll take us all the way to the ocean.'"

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.

---
Paper Size: 10 x 22 in.
Image Size: 5.4 x 17.75 in.
2017




 

“’Look, muchacho,” says he. He was pointing up at the sky, where there was a bird soaring over us most like to look over us and protect us. It had stopped raining altogether. “It’s a hawk,” Miguel says. “Gavilán colirrojo.” It was beautiful the way he said it, and I tried to say it back but it come out all rough and bejarbled. Pap said that Mexigrants warn’t smart enough to learn how to speak proper English, but I reckon it ain’t true, ‘cause I heard how good and beautiful Miguel could talk when he had something he wanted to say.”

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 7.3 x 15 in.
Image Size: 3.4 x 9.65 in.
2017

"‘Ventually we come falling out of that pipe and into the river as they call it. It was just like Tom Sawyer had showed me, a big concrete ditch but the sides was straight up here instead of slanty. There was lots of water now but not enough that we couldn’t walk along the edge with the water rushing about our feet and even up over our waists. We stayed real close to the side so that it’d be hard for anybody to see us without he was specially looking for a couple of fugitives."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 20.
---
Paper Size: 7.3 x 15 in.

Image Size: 5.1 x 10.2 in.
2017

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 10 x 11 in.
Image Size: 7.4 x 5.5 in.
2017

"When there's nowhere to run, float away."

Linocut print on Rives BFK paper.
Limited edition of 50.
---
Paper Size: 22 x 15 in.
Image Size: 17.75 x 12.2 in.
2017