This sad little shack stood not too far from one of the several houses which Matt rented before building his own hacienda. The sketch is done in ink, marker and colored pencil. Abandoned buildings often intrigue me. I imagine the people who built them…the hopes and dreams which charged their existence…the joys and tragedies which unfolded within their walls…all of which are swept away by the march of time. Of course, this adobe was probably just a utility shed where none of that happened!

To a large extent, the town of Lincoln, NM is a museum celebrating the Old West in general and the Lincoln County War and Billy the Kid in particular. Many of the oldest buildings are historical sites and any new construction has to be done in an official “frontier style”. Pictured above is a “typical Lincoln” adobe house. “Typical Lincoln” was one of Matt’s pet phrases by which he referred to the petty small-town bickering of his adopted hometown.