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 Newsletter - Spring 2001
ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE
"Even though they treated me like a celebrity when I came in here, I just wasn't happy because I couldn't paint," said artist Arlo Monroe, 86, of Jamaica, Vermont. "I didn't know how I was going to survive. Then someone who works here found a place for me to 'set up shop' on the glassed- in porch in the old Stratton House Nursing Home building, and it's made all the difference in the world." A watercolorist whose landscape paintings have been sold to collectors around the world, Arlo began painting to overcome boredom as he waited in the car while his father tried to find a job during the Great Depression. He then studied commercial art at the University of Nebraska, and attended the School of Art Institute in Chicago. After spending a summer in New York State painting a mural under the supervision of artist Pepinno Mangravite, Arlo was inspired to paint the mural that now hangs in the Jamaica (VT) town hall and worked with artist Louis Jambor to create the murals in the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro. The beginning of World War II put an abrupt end to any funding of art projects, so Arlo took a "temporary" job teaching art and social studies at Leland & Gray Seminary in 1943. He then became headmaster, and retired in 1976. Now wheelchair-bound, Arlo spends at least two hours every afternoon painting in his new "studio" at Grace Cottage. Choosing from his large slide collection of local scenes he has photographed since 1960, he projects an image onto a screen next to his easel and goes to work with his watercolors and brush. "Being able to paint while I'm in here has saved my live," said Arlo. "I don't know what I'd have done if it weren't for the people here who understand how important it is for me."
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