To highlight the amazing work of students at OCAC, we have a dedicated display of student Zines. Since 2014, the ever popular Fall class, Writer’s Craft, produces Zines as a final project.
OCAC Featured Student Zines
Even though the Zines cannot be checked out, visit the library to explore the Zine collection!
Did you know about OCAC’s expansive collection of PRINT periodicals?
Great source for world art exhibits, critiques and museum happenings.
Have you been wondering, where did Art Papers go? Well, we just received all 4 issues from 2017! They were lost but now are found.
Domus is Italian and English text, all in one, pretty package!
A great publication for design and inspiration
Art in America is image rich and delivers perspectives on current issues in the art world.
Why is Elvis Presley on the cover? Come into the library to discover why!
Our magazine collection is IN LIBRARY USE ONLY. We have a lovely seating area and free coffee. So, get comfy and read on…
“There were around 300 artists who moved to Soho: dancers, poets. musicians, visual artists…We felt that all institutions were aligned with the establishment, and so they needed to be turned upside down and reevaluated. And so the “out-of-the gallery movement” was born. Art wound be non-exclusive, taken to the streets and the contryside, to where the people were. Gordon loved the idea…”
Happy reading! New Library Materials
For almost 5 years, the OCAC library has thrived under the leadership of Elsa Loftis, our Director of Library Services. We congratulate Elsa, as she moves into a new leadership position, the Humanities and Acquisitions Librarian at Portland State University. The entire OCAC community misses Elsa’s boundless energy and inspirational passion for supporting students and faculty in their research and studies.
Elsa has also been a wonderful mentor, leader and boss. For two years, I have had the pleasure of working alongside Elsa, as I complete my Masters in Library Science (MLS). In her absence, I am serving as Interim Director of Library Services–big shoes to fill, I know!
I am honored and excited to serve as the Interim Director at our special little library, where BIG things happen. If you have a chance, feel free to stop by, say hello or even email me with any library/research questions!
Jessica Talisman
Hi campers! Now that the students have finished class (and I’m so lonely in the library!) it is time for fun summer projects. “Fun” is a relative term in this instance, but I do love discovering weird gems in the collection. Here’s a stack of books (on the counter behind me) that are going out to pasture in storage. As you can see in the stacks behind, this didn’t make much of a dent. 
And here are a couple of my favorites. This commentary is inspired by one of my favorite blogs, http://awfullibrarybooks.net/, which, if you haven’t looked at, do!
Audio Arts: SO contemporary, as the title implies! This one is hot off the presses, as you can see. I wonder if any of our students have used or remember the media pictured below. Despite the amazing aesthetic you can observe here, it is full of interviews with actually interesting artists, so even though it hasn’t circ’ed in a few years, I’m keeping this little friend, but it’s going out to storage.
Here’s a couple pictures from a very scary book about collecting crafts. This chapter was about “what to do when you bring your art home”, as if I would have this in my house! The nightmares it would cause me and my children…
Okay, this book wins the award for the least-savory cover picture. It just grosses me out, I’m sorry to be so immature. I guess it’s the hairy arms coupled with the color of the clay. This is not the same medium as Patrick and Demi worked with in Ghost.
Now for a book that is staying in my main collection because it’s amazing. It’s called Portables, and is all about, well, portable things. Here’s a picture of the cover and an example page below. Don’t miss the protective covering in the far right corner for “a walk in the park”. So awesome.
And, for the truly courageous among us, Weave Your Own Tweed! Yes sir, let those shuttles fly! Something about that image of the man behind the loom makes it look like he’s travelling through time, and indeed, perhaps he is!
And finally, what collection would be complete without An Encyclopedia of Sofas? Dibs on the pair that look like boxing gloves, they would look tremendous in my living room.
That’s all for now, but the weeding has just begun, stay tuned for more treasures from the library!
-Elsa
Today is my last shift as a work-study librarian. It’s an absolutely perfect day- outside the sky is vibrant blue, the sun lighting up the grass and leaves of the blackberry bushes electric green. From where I sit at my familiar post, the world outside looks so bright, the broad windows at the front of the library could be a collection of oddly-shaped, oversized televisions.
Bright like my future. So bright I’ve got to wear shades. I find myself smiling at the times Dylan Beck has teased me for wearing my sunglasses indoors while working on one failed attempt at ceramics after another, eyes bloodshot from staying up late and getting up early.
I’m going to miss this job dearly. What more could a weird, quiet person want? Roaming the storage collection, picking up odd titles and musing over random morsels of information. Singing Cole Porter while reshelving books when no one was around. Though the hours I’ve spent here may be few compared to those I spent in the studio, I find that they’ve been some of my favorite.
So to celebrate these cherished hours, I’ve compiled all of the (long overdue) books from around my reading chair (the outdated light blue velveteen wingback in my studio where I’ve spent so much time this year thinking, reading, napping…) to bring you a reading list of what’s been inspiring me as I’ve pondered my thesis, madness, and music. It’s called MADNESS! and it’ll be available for checkout soon, and it’s a pretty decent read, if I do say so myself. Anyway, without further ado…
The Official Mary J Wilson Thesis Year Library List
Dvd’s
Luis Bunuel’s L’Age D’Or
Visual Acoustics The Modernism of Julius Shulman
Books
The Devil’s Cloth by Michel Pastoureau
The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton
Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
Bad Girls and Sick Boys by Linda S. Kauffman
Pilgrimage by Stuart Kestenbaum
The Acme Novelty Date Book 1986-1995
Weirdo Noir: Gothic and Dark Lowbrow Art by Matt Dukes Jordan
Czech Cubism: Architecture Furniture Decorative Arts by Alexander von Vegesack
The Liberated Page
Paper Graphics
The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll
Puppets, Pawns, and Prophets
In Wonderland: The Surrealism Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and The United States
William Blake: Poet Printer Prophet
American Watercolor
Today’s library find caught my eye with its bold green-on-white spine title, set in one of those stylish 30’s typefaces that’s impossible not to adore. The curves of the S’s curl beguilingly, and the bars of the H’s wave like the sea a Deco travel poster.
It’s only fitting that my interest in this book should have come, at first blush, from its graphic qualities. The book itself is a collection of prints showcasing everyday life in the 30’s, preceded by a few well-written pages on printmaking. (If you need a brief yet thorough reference on the difference between woodcuts and wood engravings, this is your book.)
The beauty of this book comes not only from its collection of incredibly detailed print work, but in the glimpses it offers into an era familiar yet distant from our own. A time of intense social and political change, poverty, and a restless hope for a better future. Just as many of us today use our work to voice our outrage at the social injustices we see around us, or to memorialize those moments of beautiful stillness and contemplation within that world of unrest, these artists depict the truth of the time they lived in- its violence, and its beauty.
NE
508
.A55
1977
Check it Out!
Mary J. Wilson
Valentine’s Day may be over, but with spring approaching (as soon as it stops raining, of course!), the season of budding flowers and feverish new love is only beginning. Soon we’ll see the birds courting one another again, and the world burst into bloom.
Inside the covers of this crimson tome, you’ll find photos and handwritten letters between artists and their loved ones. Many could be considered works of art themselves, with illustrations, collages, and calligraphy so lovely it could make a penmanship teacher feel faint (not that those exist anymore).
So if you find yourself feeling dreamy, curl up in a rare patch of sunlight with this book and swoon over the many winsome ways that love can be put into language, such as this piece of a letter from Elliot Orr to his wife Elizabeth:
“The artist loves the storm, but he loves the star lit sky too. To love is to understand a little better.”
Art history geek bonus: on page 53 you can see a lipstick kiss from Frida Kahlo.
N
7452
.W58
2008
Check It Out!
Mary J. Wilson
Want to make a pop-up book? Who doesn’t? But understanding how to fold and cut your paper to get the right effect can be befuddling, even to a seasoned book artist. Luckily, we’ve got The Pocket Paper Engineer to help us out on that front.
Unlike many picture-based pop-up how-to books, this one has pages that fold out to show you exactly what needs to happen from the front and back of the pop-out in order to make it work. If you’re a tactile learner, this is your pop-up paradise.
Pop-ups make great additions to holiday cards too, so even if you’re not usually the sort to get all in a flutter over folding paper, this could be a fun foray into something new.
TT
870
.B27
2005
Check it Out!
Mary J. Wilson
Oregon College of Art and Craft Library 