Colville’s image of Nova Scotia Highway 101, on what was then the first overpass between Hantsport and Wolfville, freezes a moment, one of comprehension and recognition. Each component—the overpass, the figure, the truck, the bay and horizon, the road snaking before our eyes—coalesces in a point outside of normal time, the instant when our brain catches up with our eyes.

The person waving in the painting is Colville, a simple outsider watching the passing pageant of life, aware of his personal ephemerality and refusing to take himself too seriously.