Massachusetts College of Art and Design - Palette and Pen Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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The Final Touch WHAT OUR SCHOOL MEANS TO US It is quite probable that many people imagine that Art, real Art, must be the work and the expression of temperament alone. Probably most of our class on entering the School held some such idea. Like a large percentage of the people we meet and have met, we may have held that the common sense and judgment necessary in other walks of life was something that did not have to be applied to this work. Doubtless we assumed that somehow the artist was a person apart from the rank and file, that his efforts were the result of impulsive inspiration, that sound fundamental training might not be so necessary for performance, and that the great thing was to be personally adjusted toward and receptive to the lightning strokes of genius largely responsible for the creation of the master- piece. That we held this impression upon entering the School is only to say that it is as general as it is erroneous. That we have changed our point of view as our years in the School have passed by is a simple statement of what the institution has done for us in leading the members of our class to feel that the foundation of art expression rests upon fundamental training in sound principles of expression, on depth of character behind artistic vision, and upon the accumulation of a wealth of experience without which the lightning stroke of genius seldom occurs. We have learned a part of the lesson, at least concerning what our School means in professional and vocational life. On the day when we first sat as newcomers in the organization of the School we were told some of the ideals upon which this mother School sends out its sons and daughters. It was brought close home to us in those war clouded days that the ideals of draftsmanship, without which no fabric of art education could stand, were for us those of the Allies and not the enemy. We saw that boasted efficiency in art as well as in national organization had to stand the test of the highest ideals and that it was well that Massachusetts Normal Art School methods were founded on the fundamental experiences of France rather than upon the borrowed ideals of commercialized exploitation. On that day too we felt the sturdiness of the descent of our instructors’ methods from the strongest of historic sources. We recog- nized, although perhaps but dimly then, what it meant to be privileged to work under a faculty in which were preserved the great fundamental simplicities of tried and proven methods of the best historic periods and to be able to trace our artistic family tree back to the soundness of color expression in the best of European schools. We saw where American teachers, searching into the methods of these great men had pointed out their procedure in terms so clearly understood that the 6

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TABLE OF CONTENTS What Our School Means • • •■ 6 Dedication ■ • • ■ 9 Staff of the Graduation Number Center of Vission. . 10 The Appeal to The Great Spirit 11 Faculty • • . • 12 Thumb Nail Sketches • • ••...17 A Visit to Normal Art 18 1 92 1 Speaks • 22 The Senior Class 23 Some Old Friends 38 To Lowell Matteson Spear 39 Former Members of the Class 40 1 92 1 Class History 41 1921 Class Prophecy 52 What the Juniors Say 57 Chronicles of the Tribe of Sophomores 58 Fweshman Histwy • 60 Class in Linotype Typography 61 An “If” For Underclassman 62 A Talk on Illustration 63 By William Ladd Taylor Declaration of Student Government 67 The Center of V ision 68 Who’s Who? 69 Class Wills 70 Gadjets of Normal Art 76 Through the Finder gQ Autographs g6 Advertizements g7

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The Center of Vision results were finding expression every day in our studios and class rooms. We felt the touch of our instructor group with the masters of French draftsmanship and we were to be led as our work progressed in methods which preserved in most singular and inspiring fashion the best traditions of our sister republic across the sea. We have learned as our work has gone on that a beautiful thing can only be beautiful because of its perfection and simplicity. We have tried to grow through four years of constant attempt to perfect our draftsmanship, and we have been led, as few bodies of students, to clear thinking and the simplification of our work. We trust as our work goes on and we go out into the world that w ' e will constantly grow in experiences so that our expression of inspirational thought may be con- vincingly offered in whatever medium we may work. We have learned that art is not a puzzle, nor the expression of temperament alone. Rather have we found it a representation of beautiful truth, and that those who go out from its shrine must be prepared thoroughly and understandingly if they are to be accepted as its interpreters. As we have gone on in our work we have realized in larger measure the place that our School holds in professional and vocational life. We have seen those who hold important posts in art education come back to their former studios and class- rooms, and we have realized from what they have told us of their experiences how large a place the institution holds in such professional promotion. We have seen those who have been upper class men while we have been here go out as specialists in the art-using industries and we know how influential the School has been in such vocational fields. We know that the students of the Massachusetts Normal Art School are trained to give freely of their inspiration to their fellow men and interpret art to them in the classroom and the workshop in order that more people may see beauty in daily life and live happier for being able to appreciate it in the every-day occurrences. To attempt to bring beauty into the lives of a people is a worthy goal and toward this objective our School keeps its course straight. Clear thinking, facility and perfection of draftsmanship, simplicity and truth of expression, these are our foundations toward inspiration and achievement in the years that are to come. Instruction cannot guarantee the proficient mind, nor can it provide the temperament or constant inspiration. It can at best provide the good and proper soil in which the human plant can grow in art. It can offer the sim of inspiration and the rain of constructive helpful guidance. It can patiently await the day of ripened fruit, and its harvest time will bring the joy of sincerity of accomplishment. This is what our School has done for us, and we who this year go out from its door to find our place in the world’s work do so in gratitude for the training we have received and in the hope that we may be found worthy as one more class to attest to the soundness of the instruction we have received. Lucy Rogers. 7