Arba Skidmore was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the Mohegan Lake School in New York and the Brookline High School in Brookline, Massachusetts. Before becoming an artist, he worked as a salesman for Chase and Sanborn for several years. Skidmore left this job to study art at the Art Students League in New York for one year before World War One. After the war he attended evening classes at the League for three years. He began work in the field of commercial art and did art work and production for Remington Fire Arms Company and created freelance illustrations for magazines for three years. During the Depression Skidmore lived in Westport, Connecticut. He first worked for the Public Works of Art Project and then for the WPA Federal Arts Project, creating 51 works of art, mainly enlargements of insects. His works were allocated to Westport Elementary Schools, Undercliff Sanatorium, Stratford High School, Portland High School, Middlesex County Temporary Home, Fairfield State Hospital, Undercliff Sanatorium, Whittlesey Avenue School in Wallingford, Norwich State Hospital, and Long Lane Farm. The dates of Skidmore’s birth and death are unknown.

Source: WPA Artist’s WPA Biography.