How does one grow thicker skin?

[October Reader]

It's such a shame most contemporary galleries and artists take a haughty elitist stand with respect to traditional art genres. It almost feels like it's "wrong", "unfashionable" and "unenlightened" to appreciate healthy human forms nowadays in the "in" art world. Conceptual artists that are in fact employing traditional methods in their contemporary work pay little or no respect to artists who work in ways that are more loyal to tradition.

I appreciate a good deal of different elements in both contemporary and traditional artwork. It just feels frustrating having to pick sides given that so many people behave as if there is only one way to see the world.