Dining hall sees new mural

Published 12:47 pm Tuesday, August 22, 2017

A Longwood University alumnus has nearly completed a new mural in the university’s Dorrill Dining Hall.

Monty Montgomery, 42, who graduated from Longwood in 1998, has painted three other murals in Farmville.

“I was commissioned by the (Longwood) Art Department to come back in (2014), and I did a 50-foot mural in the main lobby of Bedford Art building,” Montgomery said.

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He said he was commissioned by the Downtown Farmville Partnership to paint the mural by the town’s farmer’s market. Montgomery’s third mural was also in the Dorrill Dining Hall.

“I did a 10-foot by 10-foot kind of geometric mural at the main entrance of (the building) that faces Brock Commons,” Montgomery said.

His latest piece, titled “Moment #42,” which is part of his nature series, is a 75-foot long by 8-foot tall painting that is a geometric nature artwork.

“Basically I take photographs and then sketches from when I’m, you know, sitting in the park,” Montgomery said.

He said he takes his sketches and photographs of nature and puts them on a wall in his style that looks like “old Atari games.” Montgomery said his nature series features pixelated trees and clouds.

“There’s a lot of geometry,” Montgomery said in reference to his latest mural. “… It’s really an interesting nature world.”

Montgomery said his passion for art began during his childhood.

“My mom taught kindergarten for (more than) 40 years,” Montgomery said. “… All my work is very bold and bright and my entire life, you know, I literally, I always laugh, but I grew up with a kindergarten teacher.”

“It really originates back to my mom and my dad because my dad is a craftsman of all types of sorts and a perfectionist,” Montgomery said. “As I get older, I look back and it is so clear to me that I am 50 percent my mom and my dad.”