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

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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

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dedicates this volume to GEORGE H. BARTLETT Principal Emeritus of the Massachusetts Normal Art School In recognition of his high ideals, clearness of vision and singleness of purpose, which during many years of the school’s growth, have shaped its course along the broadest and noblest lines of study and achievement.