Hitter

Lubbock native Terry Allen is a legendary outlaw country singer-songwriter as well as a visual artist. His artwork thus often deals with narrative and storytelling, particularly related to themes from American life, with his trademark irreverent humor. Here, a silhouette of a baseball player looks poised to swing his bat into the head of an oblivious woman seated at a piano, giving the work’s title a menacing double meaning. 

The surreal scene relates to Allen’s larger, multimedia project Dugout, a radio play, series of art installations, and musical theater piece in which he delves into the foundational narratives of his family—particularly his retired professional baseball-player father and his honky-tonk-pianist mother. “I grew up around millions of stories,” Allen said in an interview. “Both of my parents were epic bullshitters.”

Hitter was printed and published by Flatbed Press, Austin.