Couple hope to take artwork to the streets

If Frank Zimmerman and Masel's latest creation were to have its own business card, it would say "have gallery, will travel."

Travel it will.

Hanging on the side of a custom-made trailer, the 36-by-14-foot acrylic painting of Christ on the cross will roll into Christian gatherings, church fund-raisers and traveling art shows throughout the country.

The local couple have named the painting "The World's Largest Mobile Canvas Painting" and have contacted the Guinness Book of World Records.

"One of this size has not been done before," said Masel, who uses her first name only.

It would not be the largest painting on canvas, but the couple hope it will qualify as the largest mobile one. Once Guinness receives documentation on the painting its records department will decide if it meets the standards, Guinness spokeswoman Cindy Cominsky said.

Finished last month, the painting and trailer is the couple's life's work. They've spent all their savings on the creation.

"It's like buying a house," Masel said. "We've got our life in this. Our life, soul and heart."

While Masel, a private art teacher, painted her depiction of Christ, Zimmerman designed and built the trailer from scratch to transport it. Working side by side in a rented warehouse, the two worked seven days a week.

Zimmerman hammered and welded. Masel painted.

The trailer's interior, still under construction, is set up like a recreational vehicle with two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and bathroom.

A pickup will haul the artwork across the country and the couple is prepared to go wherever the spirit -- and the painting -- may take them.

"We could go anywhere with it," Masel said. "We'll take it anyplace.

"This is all fire-coded, we could drive this right into any stadium," Zimmerman added. "Hopefully we can go from show to show."

"We want everybody to see it," Masel said. "It's not only the Christian factor. It's the world's largest fine art mobile painting on canvas."

The painting, however, won't be rippling in the wind as the trailer rolls along America's highways. While en route to its destinations it will be protected by the collapsible roof and walls of a portable gallery built onto the trailer.

A hydraulic system lifts the gallery's sheet metal ceiling off the canvas and into position, and portable walls fold out to create a small room from which to view the art.

It takes three hours to set up and two hours to take down.

The gallery will comfortably fit 50 viewers. Its inside walls are painted black and lights are used to illuminate the subject.

"In the light he just stands out there," Masel said.

The image is of a tired and emaciated Christ hanging on the cross with nails through his wrist against a black background. His shoulder is swollen from dragging the cross before being nailed to it.

"It's breathtaking," Masel said. "We've had people actually cry standing in front of it. It's really a moving painting."

The project, a labor of love, has drained their savings and the couple are eager to get on the road. They plan to live off donations from those who view the painting. The couple moved to Las Vegas from Texas two years ago.

"We've sunk all our money into this," Zimmerman said. "Every penny we've got."

Why?

"Because it hasn't been done before," he said. "And we're Christians. It's our way of spreading the word."

The only reason the couple would ever sell the painting is to make a bigger one, Zimmerman said.

With "World's Largest" painted in white letters on the side of the trailer, the attraction can't be missed.

"For a person painting something that size it's a wonderful achievement," Sam Chinkes, the couple's friend and fellow member of the Las Vegas Art Guild, said. "She's a promising artist."

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