Beautiful Loser

The buyer loved the integration of frame and painting. In fact, Art suited the painting to the frame rather than the conventional other way around. The artist found an antique floor register for five dollars at a yard sale. This is the metal framework with adjustable louvers that was installed over a basement coal furnace. Something you might only find in a Maine barn sale. (The louvers had to go, and Art did some welding and gilded the metal.) The frame was ornately embossed and had ten Corinthian crosses dispersed around the border. Instantly upon seeing it Art resolved to do a painting of his all-time favourite Class “A” sloop, “Southern Cross”. This boat never wins races, although it is by far the prettiest sloop ever to sail in Elizabeth Harbour, Exuma. One reason it doesn’t win is that it’s sailed by a preacher, not a mailboat captain. The boat is owned by a small Baptist parish in New Providence, and the crew usually consists of the huskiest fellows that occupy the front ranks of pews. They return year after year, finishing down at the bottom of the standings. Yet the whole race is ennobled and beautified by their presence, and artists like Art Paine are viscerally inspired. One time that frame was a floor grate over a coal stove. It marked the place where welcome energy brought conviviality to the whole chamber. Does it still do so, married to another purpose?