When I first heard about the Degenerate Art Exhibit, I wondered when it would reach Berlin as the exhibition had been traveling through almost a dozen German cities. Now, as an artist myself it was painful to hear about how someone’s art was deemed “degenerate” – like what does that even mean! I truly empathize with these artists. It is cruel to put a person’s art on display for people to come and gawk and further disapprove of a life passion. I thought about it for days when the exhibition finally reached Berlin of whether or not I would pay it a visit. I wondered if there were any people going just to look at the artwork and maybe even a slim chance of people there in disguise, appreciating the artwork. As a fan of expressionism, I had to go at least once. I remember arriving and seeing a crowd of people outside, almost in the street. I was truly taken aback from the inside– all of this modern art, these new ways of expression, in the same presence as I. It was truly amazing. I had actually fallen out of art for a little, suffering artist block, but this exhibit somehow awakened something in me. Many resembled pictures from Passionate Journey. There were so many different styles of art that represented so many of today’s current  modernist tendencies, such as abstraction. Even though in most of the public eye, they are seen as the outcome of genetic inferiority and society’s moral decline, I thought they represented a new era of art. I didn’t realize how much influence and power the Nazi party had until this exhibit. It is clear that they desired to shape and control German society in every way possible. This type of “propaganda” they used was unfortunately working and it was making it even harder for other artists, including me, to have a place in society and be able to express myself. I still remember the faces of those who experienced the exhibit– the faces of disgust and disapproval still haunt me today. Even though this exhibit was meant to defame and lessen artists all around, it still provided a way for those people’s art to get out there into the world for the small chance to inspire someone like it did for me.