Miniature Stories By Will Stinson
A
s the smugglers emerge from their cave, a shadow passes briefly overhead. A moment later, the ground shakes as a boulder crashes down onto the beach from above, smashing one of their barrels. The seafaring criminals begin to scramble for cover, taking shelter from the random rocks flying down, flicked by a very bored-looking giant. That’s a scene in one of Anthony Venti’s paintings, and it’s just one of many miniature stories he likes to depict in each of his works. He took 40 • MAINE SENIORS
me around his studio, showing me what he’s been working on recently. He explained what he imagined each figure to be doing, understanding all the while that others might come up with their own interpretations. The girl holding a puppy, standing in the rear of his shipyard painting Backbone? She’s coming up to her father, a worker there, asking if she can keep the little animal. The giant, holding a basket of fruit just out of a red-hatted fellow’s reach in The Giant? He’s teasing the smaller
man, who scolds him and who is in turn scolded by another. You see, Anthony likes stories. His affection for narrative became clear throughout our conversation. He told me of true stories, too, like the wreck of the Cheseborough, a cargo ship from Bath that wrecked off the shore of Shariki, Japan. The villagers rushed to help the drowning sailors and eventually went on to hold memorial services for those who didn’t survive. As Anthony spoke, I could see how much he cared about capturing the
