Daniel Chester French, who sculpted the statue of Lincoln in Washington’s Lincoln Memorial, also created the statue of the goddess Minerva that stands before Columbia’s Low Memorial Library. Known as Alma Mater, the statue has become the symbol of the University, one of the oldest in the United States. I remove the statue’s color, helping it blend into the shadows that form between the pillars of the library. Holding a staff with one hand, and extending the other hand upwards, the statue seems to energize those columns and makes the image whole.