My Zanesville Holiday painting for Christmas 2024
It was close this year. I'd determined we were just too overwhelmingly busy between Cole Center (Montgomery Ward), ArtCOZ, and shipping daily orders - but in came a dear friend who asked me when my Christmas cards [of the 'new piece'] would be available. That was barely a week ago, and I knew I had to make it happen no matter what - so here it is, literally finished about four hours ago.
I've depicted the famous
Budweiser Clydesdales as they would have appeared in 1935, crossing our famous Y-Bridge with the old downtown in the background. Prohibition had just ended, and Budweiser created this team of horses to travel across the country, delivering cases of beer to politicians who'd supported the repeal, starting with a case delivered to Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House.
This was a classic period for downtown Zanesville, after the 1913 flood. The Y-Bridge had been uncovered and electrified, but the trollies still shared the bridge with motor traffic. The eastern span onto Main Street was broken by a vast elevator over the canal that raised the entire street into the sky to permit traversing vessels. The mills, power station, and water tower did not long last into history. The Christmas decorations I've depicted on the bridge are actually correct for the City of Zanesville in 1933.
Back during this summer, when the Budweiser Clydesdales visited downtown, my wife was adamant: I had to incorporate them into this year's piece - and here they are!
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