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

Page 8 text:

OUR NEW PROJECT ERE is our newly conceived Year Book with examples of — work demonstrating some accomplishments of our stu- dents. As a new creation it is just a beginning, but it steps forth a healthy, joyous youngster with a distinguished air and a dignified appearance, due to the splendid generosity of our engravers and printer and the coopera- tion of our students and faculty. It is a forecast of the Year Books to fol- low: it well illustrates our purpose.

Page 7 text:

A NOTE ON THE PORTRAIT Raymond A. Porter Mr. Andrew’s portrait of my mother and me was started about six years ago, and although practically finished, it has not been finished to the sa- tisfaction of the artist until now. The sittings were usually at my home, and Mother is shown in her accustomed chair with a silk log cabin quilt, one of a long series that she loved to build. They make a sort of tapestry of family vanities, and filled for her the place of more elaborate needlework too minute for old eyes. If you find in this canvas delicate refinements of design and felicitous harmonies of tone, I assure you they are not accidental, nor can you credit them to the natural beauty of at least one of the sitters. The camera has always failed to achieve such results when used upon him. And if you find that your favorite theory of Art is applicable I can testify that it was applied if at all only after it had been demonstrated. The painter relied on his instinct and not on his book. An artist such as Mr. Andrew at work is as alive and earnest as Vesuvius. If brushes with white lead or arsenic on them need to be pointed, no fear of poisoning stops their being pointed, and in the most natural way. If an afternoon’s work is beautiful in its own way but not quite true in its own psychological balance, out it goes and another day of energetic attack gets the right balance. These intermittent visits of Mr. Andrew to carry on the portrait when in the mood have been the occasion of many delightful discussions of art in all its phases; and now with the finished work before me, I personally feel greatly honored and deeply grateful.

Page 9 text:

Our policy is to develop original thought based upon known and tried principles and expressed as finely as is humanly possible. We believe that our art may find expression without limit in the works of men. This book exhibits a few phases of its application as presented in the program of our school. It unfolds a vista of many more paths in the great field of art we wish to tread. Fortunate are you whose work is on these pages. We are proud of you, but we know, too, that many more could as worthily represent us. Future Year Books will become the goal toward which all will strive and our parents and our friends shall then see in us leaders trained in a technical school of the highest professional grade. c 5 »