The esthetosphere may be compared to the biosphere, atmosphere, and geosphere. The geosphere makes the atmosphere possible, which makes the biosphere possible, which makes the esthetosphere possible. I first encountered the esthetosphere when I took the GRE in Durham. It was given at NC Central, a traditionally black college. Afterwards, I walked across the campus and saw an art gallery. I went in out of curiosity. It was jam packed with pictures, from floor to ceiling. Being a snobbish artist from New York, my first impression was, "What a huge pile of mediocre crap!" But I was fascinated by it. The purpose of this gallery was not to display great art. The purpose, I decided, was to display as much art by African Americans as possible in order to inspire young African American people and give them the courage to try their hand at the arts. And the purpose of that was to give them, as a group, more power. It occurred to me that behind this effort was an assumption that the arts have the power to empower people, especially when they are in a minority. I began to explore this idea.

I envisioned the arts as a whole and called this whole the esthetosphere. I asked myself what are the limits of power of the arts to empower people, individuals, but especially groups of people. I hypothesized that a group of people can be empowered within, and thereby without, by producing great quality art. But the gallery at NC Central suggested that a group of people might be empowered by great quanity of art as well, regardless of quality. What else? I added diversity. Any group of people who, being a minority, have limited power through the electoral process, can increase their power vis-a-vis other people by increasing the quality, quantity and diversity of their artistic output.

Jews have produced much in the performing arts, but relatively little in the visual arts, in particular, visual art that is rooted in the unique judaic perspective. In my studies in art history at Duke University Graduate School, I came across the notion that "Jewish Artists" is a term usually applied to artists whose work is rooted in Jewish culture, history, experience. Marc Chagal is called the first significant Jewish painter in the west. Pisarro and Modigliani were Jews, but are not considered "Jewish Artists," because their work is not rooted in any particularly Jewish experience. In the coming Israeli occupation of the esthetosphere, visual art will be rooted in the beauty of the invisible, the delightfulness of torah, as is referred to in psalm 1.