I discovered this art work, Bitter/Sweet, behind me two weeks ago in American University’s Katzen Arts Center in Washington DC. It is created by local artist Cory Oberndorfer in January this year. As AU’s alumni artist series, the school invited Oberndorfer to create this mural, where all the messages in these candy hearts came from an online responses to the artist’s survey questions:

     “What’s the most romantic thing anyone’s ever said to you?” 

     “The most hurtful thing?” 

     “What are your favorite and least favorite clichés about love?” 

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. It is the most romantic day for a lot of people. But it could also be a bitter sweet moment for some. Whether you are madly in love, or sadly just lost the love of your life, I hope you feel loved and appreciated on this special day. Because you are.


If you pay attention to the artwork, you would see a black box covering one of the candy hearts. It became quite controversial when the university administrator discovered the offensive language shown in a school property, and immediately gave Oberndorfer an ultimatum: Cover the offending word or destroy the entire work… A few days after I took these pictures, I found out that the school officials decided to let Oberndorfer repaint his mural to its original state to respect the artist and not censor art.