Mount Olympus Traffic Jam

Every once in awhile you run across a story that just has to be painted. Spencer Pugh, who owned this house on 45th S 13th E, called me around 25 years ago and said, “Please come to the house. I have something interesting to show you.” I met him on the front porch and in his possession was a letter from Willard Pugh to Edward Pugh, who was in France during WWI. It was basically a report on the farm: how many cows, how many bushels of wheat, etc. At the bottom of the letter it read, “They’re coming to oil the road next week. We are so excited. The traffic has been so bad and the dust is driving us crazy.” And mind you, this would have been around 1918. How many vehicles could have been going by in 1918? It would have been mostly horses and wagons. As we were standing on the front porch looking at the huge amount of traffic flying by on 45th South, we looked at each other and couldn’t control our laughter. Of course I had to paint this scene for Spencer. As a tribute to this letter, we have titled the painting “Mount Olympus Traffic Jam.”