Boys My Money's All Gone Painting

Boys My Money's All Gone is part of Paula McHugh’s series of paintings inspired by the titles of American and Celtic fiddle tunes and folk songs. The paintings depict three farmers sharing a devastating moment after a terrible dust storm destroyed their farm in the1930s. Not much is known about the musical title Boys My Money's All Gone except that during the depression it was a common sentiment. I placed this title in the American Dust Bowl tragedy when poor farming practices and severe drought conditions created immense dust storms in Oklahoma, Kansas, the panhandle of Texas and parts of New Mexico and Colorado. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave their farms.