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I don’t really know how being an artist and being part of a “scene” is not a paradox. I witnessed something fascinating on Facebook this week. A jazz musician took it upon himself to simply voice his strong negative opinion on what is a legendary jazz artist. The backlash was nuclear! It really drew everyone out in the jazz world for who they truly are as human beings.  Their fears, anger, and delusions were screaming like a baby without a pacifier. And when I say everyone, I mean he has something like 600 comments on this one post, all of which are New York’s finest musicians. “FUCK (artists name).” That’s all he wrote. Comments were everything from very respected musicians saying, “You’re not well. Leave town! You’ll pay for this! You’re ignorant and don’t know anything about music!” You name it! I want to be totally clear here. I actually personally disagree with his sentiments about said jazz legend, and find the artist he criticized to resonate deeply with me. Key word here is “resonate.” We’ll come back to that in a bit. He was banished by the New York jazz society in a matter of hours by voicing a non-threatening opinion. Sounds a little draconian if you ask me. What is disheartening to me is the cronyism that art consistently reveals itself to be about in our society. The notion of sticking with your friend’s views or else. Then the question becomes who are your friends and why? Doesn’t true artistic output challenge this exact notion? Am I in this scene because my art coincides with these people and I simply want to be in a community? Community is great. It is important. But ultimately what art is is the human voice of expression at its fullest- offenses and all. Form, structure, and hierarchy are terms best left for the financial world. What is the real reason most artists are part of a community? It is no different that the ‘cool kids on campus syndrome.’ I can not tell you how many countless ill-talented artistic performances I have been to that have been driven by an artist’s community of cronies. “It’s not what you know but whom you know” has no place in real art. Great art stands on it's own! An audience following is built from the resonance of content. It is unnecessary whether it is accepted by society as a whole or not. It is unnecessary whether it is pleasant or not. It just has to draw a reaction, and pretty much any piece can do that. That being said it must be about our own personal response to a piece that is substantial, not academic, or categorical connections. Never wondering what your “scene” thinks. Not worrying about what I may look like in society liking or liking something. I have a personal complex that I actually deeply believe in. The old Marx Brothers quote, “I’d never be in a club that would have me as a member.” Not only does this resonate with me in the sense of my own humility of course, but the notion of “What artistic group could possibly know my creative and personal output intricacies when I don’t know them myself- hence my life’s work?” What is the real reason I am here in this club? Yes, it is great to converse and be inspired among others and their artistic output no doubt, but the “membership” stops there. I suppose this all stems in people from our fear of loneliness. Our fear of banishment. Our need for approval. Our fears once again drive us. That in itself tells us how misguided this tribal view of dehumanization really is. And all this needs to be there to create complete artistic expression? Nonsense! It’s all there in the name of self-serving, egomaniacal vehicles, and avoiding our fears and limits, the exact things art is meant to challenge and enlighten. Art is simply a car that brings one to the town of “EGO-ville!” Michael Jackson once said… “I just get out of the way and let the music do its thing when I am creative.” Well put. And yes, I picked exactly a pop artist to make this point. Whether pop art or the avant-garde it seems art has no true relevance in society but to perpetuate fears, greed, and denials. People are dumbfounded when one stares at a blob on the wall and calls it art. Why? Does it evoke something out of you? Then that is all that matters. And if form is what you need, then understand that it coincides with your need to have society approve in some way what you allow to resonate in yourself. I too am moved by form and structure at times. Art is what it is in that moment. It simply mirrors our states on a level that the sciences cannot express. It connects us in ways that are not based on the cerebral.