Extremes beget extremes-spirituality and art

Spiritual and the contemporary art world, at a glance, seem to be far from each other. While the latter seems more about fame, ambition, money, ego, the former suggests detaching those. I like art on a certain level, (I am actually getting bored with the scene these days though.) and spirituality has been always in my life (I am actually fed up with the term, spirituality.) I have been working in a gallery and participating in some meditation or yoga retreats and some lectures from time to time. Something about both sometimes make me feel extremely uncomfortable and puking up almost. I have been wondering what is the cause of my allergic-like reaction to both worlds. Today, taking a small walk under the sun, I have come to realization that, in fact, they have lots in common. They can be "ridiculously serious," " condescending," and "judgmental." In the art world, people are serious and O.T.T., getting into details on any levels. How important the piece is to the world now, how great it has reference to the past,"---ism", how the brushstrokes do to the viewer, how the artist comes up with this great and innovative idea, how important such a museum has to own this piece, how precise it needs to be installed so on and on without a tiny bit sense of humor and with almost a scary look. They are so serious about the details that a dealer, an artist and a collector often fight. People in the spiritual world have the same tone with more cheesiness. “We have a god within.” “ we need to tap into our inner child.” The term, “spirituality” sounds cheesy to begin with. I wonder if there is a way to say without sounding cheesy... Often people who believe into what they believe can get resented attacking, puckering their blow, when somebody disagrees with them. Likewise in the art world. One time, I claimed a “I shouldn’t have said” kinda statement to a highly recognized private dealer, Mr X. “I don’t like Takashi Murakami’s work.” Mr. X reacted against me as if he was completely denied his whole existence by a God or he just saw a ghost. “If you don’t understand his work, you should not be in this biz!” His voice was raised up and his face was getting pale. As much as I regretted putting up my claim, but well, "Give me a break."
Then, when an artist talks about a concept or his/her statement, it gets worse. Not only he becomes ridiculously serious, but also sounds so condescending that I learn a way to pretend to listen, but never really do. In front of a sculptural installation of brand new empty boxes, or bottles, “this is the way of commenting on commercialism and commodity, blur, blur and blur." "Then, instead of wasting materials, why don’t you stop making art, if you really concern about materialism?" Oh, when it comes to spirituality, it is worse than the worse. A friend of mine who has been into spirituality visited me in NY from Australia once. She often said, "The world is beautiful. You have to cultivate peace within, blur and blur." "Don’t throw a cigarette on the street, we have to save our mother earth." Yet, she smokes too. "You walk too fast, oh you are a New Yorker. Be in the moment!" Every 5 mins, she says something "spiritual," imposing me. (By the way, why could the tecnical terms in spirituality sound not cheesy?) When I introduced one of my friends who was a middle-aged Japanese art collector to her, she turned into a monster so easily. When he told her to be careful in South Mexico where was her next visit from NY, her face got reddish and she commented with her right side of eyebrows high up, “If one has fear, one is attracted to fear, and just you know I know what I am doing!” There was a long awkward silence and he left sooner. “Common, he is my friend. Show some respects, though he might not be spiritual according to you. What is all about peace?” I kept to myself. When someone doesn’t act accordingly what one says, the word loses its power and becomes just condescending. In the end, I said to her, “you are too condescending.” We argued quite a bit. Then she left and emailed me saying that, “I have an influence on people, so no wonder I am annoying to you.” “Oh men and Amen.” I completely ignored, wishing that she would get me one day. (Just in my belief, the influential person would not need to prove that.)
In the both worlds, there are various types of judgemental eyes flying around. I come across a head to toe scan in both social situations. If you are a new commer, often, people give you a look,"you know nothing about what we are talikng about." Then, in both, people either pretend to teach you like doing to a kid, which imply that they are showing off how much they know about or how advanced they are. In the yoga retreat, I heard people almost shouting Mantra in the class, as if they competed against each other about how good they read without seeing the text.
At last, people have an attitude--"I am chosen and I am a God.”
If that is so, why could this world be a better place than before?
Too many words, too many artworks, too many artists, too many galleries, too many cheapish spirituality, too serious and just too much. This is the time when extreme seriousness becomes and sounds a big joke.