HOME
IS WHERE YOUR ART IS :
Alden Cole ’ 62
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
" Cole Farm , Summer of 1955 " is displayed in TA ' s
Alumni House . Alden Cole ' 62 sits surrounded by his art in his Philadelphia home .
Take a walk down the main hallway on the first floor of Thornton Academy ’ s Alumni House , and you ’ ll likely catch a glimpse of a wide green field with a red-roofed farmhouse nestled in an expanse of trees . This painted landscape includes three farmers , surrounded by the vehicles of haying season , who have stopped to chat in a field across from the farmhouse . The image is titled " Cole Farm , Summer of 1955 ," and it captures a glimpse of Cole Farm Dairy , a childhood recollection of the painting ’ s creator , Alden Cole ’ 62 , who was raised as a farm boy on River Road in Dayton just over the Biddeford line . The piece is based on a black and white snapshot taken by Cole ’ s older brother , Wallace ’ 57 , and is the result of a painting series devoted to the landscape of Cole ’ s childhood and teens in Maine . “ I came across this snapshot , and was moved to turn the artful composition into a full-color painting ,” Cole says .
Cole found his love of art and first nurtured his creative passion as a student at Thornton Academy . Harriet Patrick , Latin teacher extraordinaire , was Cole ’ s first mentor . He was fortunate to be included in Junto — an extracurricular group that Harriet and Bob Stanton sponsored in the early 60s . Through that group , Cole experienced several defining moments that gradually led him to art , via exposure to a larger world . However , the truly defining moment occurred during his senior year when he was interviewed by Joe McCarthy , TA ' s guidance counselor . Cole remembers , “ His first question to me was ‘ have you ever considered going to an art school ? You scored very high in the arts , as indicated by those aptitude tests you took last year .’ I responded that I was planning to go to the University of Maine , or Bowdoin College if I got a scholarship , to study Mathematics , since that was my field of excellence .
12 Story by Haley Thompson · Photos courtesy of Alden Cole ' 62 and UnexpectedPhiladelphia . com