After a few months in New Orleans, allowing eyes time to readjust from the blinding lights of Bourbon Street, the city sadly resembles a checkerboard, both figuratively and abstractly.

In a linear world, rigid lines draw unfortunate racial barriers in this city brimming with searchers, lovers and bandits. However, only through abstracting, distorting and bleeding those lines can we tap into the infinite cultural rainbow of African, Latin and European influence that produce the New Orleans palate.

Blurring the lines of the New Orleans Temple has been a career for local artist John Scott. A Ninth Ward native, Scott said he “was born, raised, lives and plans to die in New Orleans.” His art reflects much of the cultural syncretism New Orleans breathes into its youth, who like Scott began creating art simply because “everyone did it and because it just seemed natural.”

“Circle Dance: The Art of John T. Scott” is a retrospective of his work over the last 40 years and is showing at the New Orleans Museum of Art from May 7 to July 10. In the show, viewers can interact with more than 200 of Scott’s pieces, ranging from wood block to sculpture to painting.

Difficult to categorize and even harder to describe, Scott works with a visual language that does not easily translate into words. His use of many diverse mediums, from sketches to sculptures, help to express his various thematic visions.

“I was trained that media is like a language and that there is no reason not to speak a number of different languages,” Scott said.

Often used to describe his work are the declarations of faith, “jazz” and “blues.” However, his art rarely even fondles the literal topics of the king and queen of New Orleans music. Rather, the philosophies behind the musical dynasties pepper his work with spontaneity, surges and soul, allowing him to explore issues of kinetics, politics and experimentalism.

Still, he said his “work is primarily concerned with the human condition,” a situation Scott expresses sharply through his manipulation of various metal sculptures, intense wood block and subtly brash paintings.

Scott’s gems flirt with the human condition much in the same way New Orleans plays so eloquently with the human experience. Murky alleys and slipshod emotions, the city fashioned the artist as much as the artist claimed unique space within the city.

By digging deeply enough into New Orleans to splice her veins and draw blood, Scott did not just add another hue to the cultural rainbow. He twisted and contorted it into a whole new game of human illusion and reality.

Sammy Loren can be reached at [email protected].