MassArt Library Blog

The MassArt Library is running a trial of Material ConneXion. For those of you unfamiliar with MC, it is a database of materials used in industrial design, fashion, architecture, 3D fine arts, and other fields. Use the Advanced Search function to find materials that meet pre-determined characteristics. These might include qualities of texture, durability, and sustainability.

You can access MC from on campus by clicking this link. If you would like to access it from off campus, create an account using this link and then sign in.

Members of the MassArt community can also visit the Material ConneXion space in NYC to view real material samples. It’s located at 60 Madison Avenue, 2nd Floor New York, NY 10010 Phone: 212-842-2050. Hours: M-F, 9-6.

Our lovely Public Services librarian, Gabrielle Reed, put a a couple of Audrey Niffenegger’s books on the bookshelf near our Circulation desk, along with many other books by female writers, poets, artists, etc.

Audrey Niffenegger is most known for her book The Time-traveler’s Wife, which was made into a movie in 2009, but has also made several beautiful visual books.  She  currently teaches in the Interdisciplinary Book Arts MFA Program at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts.

Her work is reminiscent of Edward Gorey a little, especially her “novel in pictures,” The Three Incestuous Sisters:

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Niffenegger also has a number of self-portraits and other paintings up on her website as well as a link to the first chapters of  her graphic novel The Night Bookmobile which was published in Sept. 2010 and is available on Amazon.com.

 Lastly, check out the artist book Poisonous Plants at Table, which contains a short story written and illustrated by Niffenegger.

ADBusters Can!

In the Summer of 2011 it called to Occupy Wall Street.

Then it went viral….

Take a Look in the Library Periodical Section

In honor of Rush Limbaugh’s eloquence and the Republican party’s general decision to try and take us back to the dark ages, I thought I would remind everyone that it is women’s history month. Whether we are being vilified for being witches, accused for being seducers, or just plain underpaid in the work force, we women, seem to carry on. It is to my amazement that we don’t eat our young sometimes. Rush, clearly your mother couldn’t even stomach you…a pity. On a more positive note let’s thank our lucky stars that women have been around to contribute to society in the most amazing ways! Just a few below…

Louise Bourgeois

Sonia Delaunay

Frida Kahlo

Elsa Schiaparelli

Our wonderful Visual Resources librarian, Caitlin Pereira, has compiled an awesome delicious page full of images resources for us all to enjoy. This morning I began browsing Yale’s digital collection of medical posters, they are incredible, check them out.

Does it get any better than this???? This poster is from 1942 and was created for the Venereal Disease Education Institute, a gem.

This next image comes from an another amazing digital collection from Duke University called Ad*Access.

Ahhh… women’s greatest hygienic “problem,” I’m not going to touch this one.This image was published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1927.

Listerine’s campaign to frey our nerves as to whether or not we have bad breath, it seems to still be working!

So another leap year has rolled around since the last one four years ago and thus far it has been pretty good albeit it is only 9:45 in the morning. I woke remembering that my college roommate’s mom has finally reach her 17th birthday and pondered if they had thrown her a sweet 16th party 4 years ago…hmmmm. The whole sweet thing led me to thinking about literal sweets so being hungry I made my way down to the 2nd floor tower cafe only to find it will be under renovation and closed. So word to the warning you need to go else where for a snack. This led me to the 8th floor vending machines, which are now quite fancy, touchscreens no less. We have staff members in the library with barely functioning computers but the school has pop tarts that can be dispensed via touch screen technology, something is wrong here. The wholesome snack I chose, being the strawberry pop tart got me thinking about Wayne Thiebaud’s confectionery paintings. If you haven’t seen them, come get a fix at the library…you may then need to visit a bakery, vending machine, and or Pete’s coffee for a cupcake right afterwards.

We’ll I hope everyone got their red carpet fashion groove on last night watching the 84th annual Oscars. I’m not sure who’s dress was my favorite yet but there was definitely a lot to choose from. Check the Fug Girls best and worst dress list!

Remember to swing by our stacks in the TT’s to browse some of the best designer’s fashion books.

Gwen looking classy in Tom Ford

Rooney Mara in Givenchy

Spencer in Tadashi Soji

White dresses seemed to be popular this year at the Oscars.

While watching last night I hadn’t realized just how totally out of touch to this seasons movies I had been. I made a list of movies I need to watch and those that needed to be ordered for the library. There were some great short films and animation films I am excited about. The movie Hugo seemed to do great…I hope everyone one knows we own the the graphic novel that inspired the movie, The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

A Columbia architecture grad is converting unused pay phone stalls in NYC into micro libraries. Read about it in the Atlantic.

The Art Museum from Phaidon is now available in the Reference section of the library. Weighing in at 992 pages and quite a few pounds, this is the ultimate grande coffee table book (assuming the table is strong enough to support it). It presents a fantasy gallery of over 2000 world masterpieces. Needless to say, it’s lavishly illustrated in full color. Text is good too. Record here.