The Significance of Nobody: A Feature Honoring the Life of Scott Patterson aka “The Me Nobody Know

Identity is a curious concept. When asked “Who are you?” oftentimes, people within our society will subconsciously deflect. They’ll tell you what they do for a living, the names of their pets. They’ll show you their social media feeds (and request a follow) and tell you what they like to do. But rarely will the question be answered at face value. They reason is simple: we don’t really know how to answer anymore. The concept of identity has gotten lost in translation; most can’t differentiate between who they are and, who they want to be perceived as. Scott Patterson knew who he was. He was Nobody.

His story is one of two men: On the one hand there was Scott Patterson. A kindhearted man, a father of three and, at one point the Vice President of design studio based in New York. On the other hand, he was The Me Nobody Knows, or Nobody for short. This alter ego was an emballated NYC Graffiti artist with very strong political views, and an advocate for peace.

His beginnings are humble. Born in New Jersey, Patterson, like many artists, was once homeless. Life led him to becoming the Senior VP of an Advertising Agency in New York, but fate had other plans .

“I was Vice President of an Ad Agency, In front of all their creative processes.I was making over $100K a year” he said in an interview for a blog curated by rapper 50Cent “I wasn’t happy. I was miserable. I didn’t like how people treated each other. I didn’t like how people treated me.”

The Significance of Nobody: A Feature Honoring the Life of Scott Patterson aka “The Me Nobody Knows” aka “Nobody”

Perhaps it was chance that drove this tired man in his mid-thirties, to take a mental health day, walk down to the art district of SOHO, and begin selling his art on the street. The public response indicated that perhaps stronger forces were at work: he quickly sold his first painting, the $29 print a direct representation of successful street art. That premier sale breathed life into the creative and, Nobody, the artist, began to take form. His career as a visual artist took shape quickly. Within a few months, he quit his job, linked up with other underground New York street artists to form the SoSick Collective (Fellow members included fellow New York street artists AVONE, 2ESAE, and SKI) and within 5 years, was exhibiting his art both domestically and internationally. He was still selling art on Ebay, when he was featured in a 2008 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Eventually, he took up residence in the art district of Wynwood, in Miami, FL. His moniker The Me Nobody Knows came from tragedy. While hanging out with AVONE, they received news that a fellow street artist had been killed. The death of his friend weighed heavily on his mind. His name, and the ideals behind that name came to him almost simultaneously

“There’s more of us killing us than cops or racists and nobody cares.” He said, when talking about the killing to a correspondent from Life is Digital Media. “It was just an epiphany that I had; We have to start facing the reality that Afro American males are killing Afro American males at a greater rate than cops. There are more humans killing humans, more American’s killing each other than terrorists. That while were going overseas to look for terrorists, there’s more murders happening here in the United States. So I began… allegedly… writing Nobody Cares all over New York.”

Many compare his work to another famous Black street artist from New York: Jean-Michel Basquiat, but Nobody consistently shies away from the comparison, even using his art to purposefully distance himself. Nobody was completely self taught. Before entering major circles in the art world, he had never heard the name Basquiat, and thus hated for his art to be called into comparison. At face value, it is easy to see the similarities, when you delve deeper into their individual bodies of work, the differences are undeniable.

Basquiat often painted without political purpose, or polarizing message in mind. He was simply an artist who made art for the sake of creation. Nobody, on the other hand, always had at least one overarching message in all of his pieces, even though some of those themes were repetitive.

Basquiat used a crown as a motif to represent his own sense of regality and self worth; Nobody used a three pronged crown to broach a more delicate subject. His crown was representative of his three children, a reminder that every time he painted that crown, he was thinking of them, despite his own failings. The repetitive phrasing that Basquiat was most known for, SAMO IS DEAD, was an external representation of a personal experience. Nobody’s personal mantra is a very important, purposeful message that he left behind for the inspiration future generations.

Nobody named himself anonymously, to make a passionate point: Nobody cares, but we all should. He embraced his fame eagerly, not for the monetary gains, but for the platform. His beliefs, his ideals poured out of him, both visually and verbally. He adopted the mantra “Art is my weapon” and declared the phrase the focal point of his movement. In so many words, the Art is My Weapon is the suggestion that in order to eradicate violence, and hypocrisy, we must embrace love, and ourselves, and art can be used as a means to that end. Nobody wanted the public to know that within each of us is a gift that if nurtured, can change not only ourselves, but can unleash our potential to change the world.

In his own words, Nobody explains the phrase. “There’s violence in the world, but I choose art as my weapon. Art is my weapon against ignorance,. Art is my weapon against hatred, against poverty. Art can change the world. It changed mine.”

His legacy lives on, past his untimely death. Discovered in his apartment in September 2016, Scott Patterson died by his own hand. His voice and his message live on, even though his spirit is not longer in this realm. In his last days, Nobody was known to haunt the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, FL, an area with an excellent reputation for incredible street art. His words “Art Is My Weapon” can be found scrawled across the concrete in various locations throughout the neighborhood, his positivity embracing you, a familiar sense of encouragement. His work remains for the world to see, experience, and interpret, but who he was as a person left a lasting impact on his neighbors, his friends, his children, and an entire generation of artists to come. “I’m trying to leave a mark on humanity. ‘ he said ”The streets aren’t my canvas. Your mind your soul is my canvas.”

Identity is a curious concept. We are born, we live, and right when we finally think we’ve got it all figured out, our lives, fleeting as the flame of a candle, are extinguished, snuffed out by the winds of chance.

It’s interesting that a man named Nobody could leave a legacy which challenged each person he touched to confront their own identity, and define their sense of humanity. He believed with conviction that we were the masters of our own destinies and that our future was dependent on one thing: our compassion. Scott Patterson was a man who showed the world, that each of us is Nobody until we consciously decide to be somebody. With the political atmosphere present in this day and age, with racism, classism, and bigotry on the center stage, with hate permeating our conscious minds every single day, it is far easy to feel as though nobody cares. And in those moments, I challenge you, The Me Nobody Knows challenges you, to be the anomaly. Don’t be a nobody. Be like NOBODY. The Me Nobody Knows. Because NOBODY believed in you. Nobody cared.