While in college a fellow student said this to me during a critique. It was meant to be an off handed insult and I took it as such. The longer I thought about it the longer I felt that I should have taken it as a compliment. First of all my peer said I had made something beautiful and I am a pessimist at heart. Why shouldn’t I make beautiful things that enhance the lives of people who look at them? Why shouldn’t I make things that are beautiful in this world, which is cowering in the face of blind nationalism and fundamentalist hatred. Art can be the tolerance in this world, it can bring us together and show us what we can truly aspire to. All we need to do is allow it to become part of our lives.