I have been working at an academic art library for about a year and a half in various capacities. Just recently I was hired as the school’s cataloging librarian, so I have been learning my professional duties over the past few months. In addition to these duties, it is important that I learn more about art and design because I work in such a subject-specific library. I have always been interested in art: I was co-president of my high school’s art club my senior year, and I was an art major my first year of college. But that was a decade ago, and any art history or technique I learned then is has been largely forgotten or outdated.

It’s my good fortune that I get to look at some great (and admittedly not-so-great) art books during the course of my day. Typically my books encompass many different subfields, mediums, time periods, and techniques; as a I catalog a range of books, for example, I might see works on 19th century American painters, contemporary Chinese installation artists, women’s fiber art of the 1970s, resume help, typography, and documentary photography. My cataloging work is somewhat a crash course in art.

I often come away from cataloging a set with a few names and ideas that I want to share, and for my first post with content, I thought I’d highlight a few things I’m really loving at the moment, (they’re not all library-related, though):

1. Vidya Gastaldon :

Gastaldon is a French contemporary artist whose work is firmly fantastical–whimsical without being saccharine or cutesy. Whether it is drawings of saucer-eyed spirits, philosophical musings on Spongebob Squarepants, or a shamanistic monster made of wool, Gastaldon invokes the twilight time when dream starts to slip to nightmare.

2. Shiina Ringo :

I stumbled across Shiina Ringo on the music blog Dinosaur Gardens and I have been infatuated with her since. Dinosaur Gardens has a great biography if you want to read more about her, but the long and short of it: Ringo was/is a Japanese pop star in the same vein as Britney or Xtina. In 2003 she entered the studio with a virtual army of producers, musicians, and artists, and released an amazing art album. Each song has a different style (i.e. torch song, disco-beat, orchestral rock ballad) and utilizes a variety of instruments (standard guitars, piano, traditional Japanese instruments). Ringo felt the album was truly the pinnacle of her solo career, and has since stopped releasing solo work.

3. Creme Brulee

Creme brulee doesn’t have much to do with art, librarianship, or the combination of the two, but I felt compelled to sing its praises all the same. I was first introducted to the dessert by my older sister, and since then I try to get it when I can. On my honeymoon I ordered it at a small cafe in Paris. Although it was served on a dinner plate (and borderline cliche), it was still one of my favorite taste-memories of our European trip. The last time I had it was Valentine’s Day last year, so I’m definitely overdue.