I've been interviewed by the Boldbrush Show and the episode has just been released! It's a video podcast in which I talk about meaning and connection through the Cosmic Perspective, getting started as an artist, my working process, and more. I had a great time talking with Laura and it should be a fun watch. Go check it out!
Night Migration 20 x 30 inches, Oil A new painting from an earlier study coming to the IX Art Show next week in Reading, PA!
In our night sky there is a dark band that runs through the Milky Way, known as the Great Rift. This darkness is where the stars of our galaxy are obscured by vast clouds of interstellar dust and geese … er, gas.
There is an experience of magic to be found in the poetry of stories, new and old. For many thousands of years, our ancestors looked at the random distribution of stars in the night sky and saw things that were familiar to them. Some people think that living with a scientific worldview means giving up the wonder of our ancestor’s stories. Yet, just as enjoying a fantasy novel doesn’t require believing it to be true, having a grounded, science-based worldview doesn’t have to keep you from enjoying the beauty and poetry of myth and metaphor.
Just don’t make any important life decisions as though there are really giant geese in space, okay?
Prints: https://robrey.storenvy.com
Detail image of a new painting from an earlier study that I'll be taking with me to the IX Art Show next week in Reading, PA! Come check it out, it's an amazing collection of art.
Cosmic Perspective is using the insights of modern science to see the big picture of the world and our place in it with a sense of belonging and connection. It’s understanding our scale within the universe - being humbled by a grand and awe-inspiring expanse of space and deep time. But it’s also seeing the very small with a sense of wonder for the staggering complexity of biology, chemistry, and quantum mechanics. In the light of scientific understanding, a little curiosity is quickly rewarded with an enchanting, even spiritual feeling of wonder at the natural world. Making an effort to comprehend the cosmos has a way of putting our lives, troubles, and pride in a helpful frame of reference, allowing us to refocus on what matters most. When we see the Earth as a lonely blue speck of oasis, it naturally sparks feelings of fellowship with all other earthlings. Through this panoramic lens, our terrestrial disputes and nationalist contentions are reduced to insignificance. Empathy and compassion become obvious ways to relate to one another.
In a time when our traditional sources of meaning are growing less resonant, Cosmic Perspective provides a new and inspiring scientific origin story of humanity, united by our shared atomic history as stardust. It provides a sense of kinship with all life on earth in our shared genetic evolution over four billion years of development. It provides a sense of belonging and responsibility as a crew member on this spaceship Earth, of which humanity now sits at the helm. It provides hope in our capacity to reason and understand the cosmos of which we are part, giving us new powers to cure disease and improve our lives. It provides us with purpose and necessitates cooperation to preserve and cherish our tiny planet, the only habitable place we know to exist.
Climbing the Milky Way 24 x 20 inches, Oil, 2014
“A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge.” - Carl Sagan, Astronomer
Cosmic Perspective is not a religion, but it is a science-based way of viewing the universe and our place in it that can provide spiritual fulfillment much like a religion, available to all, with or without a traditional faith. Cosmic Perspective is using the insights of modern science to see the big picture of the world and our place in it with a sense of belonging and connection.
Prints: https://robrey.storenvy.com More about Cosmic Perspective: https://www.robreyfineart.com/about
Nebular Nook 24x16 in, Oil, 2021
A new star stretches out their solar wind in the nebulous dust of deceased giants. In just a few million years, their charge particles will carve out a bubble like nest for themselves in the dust while a family of planets likely form, enriched with elements created by the previous star and ready for the complex chemistry of life to begin.
A million years would be approximately 40,000 humans generations, yet homo sapiens has only existed for less than a third of that time, about 12,000 generations. Not only do we, but our whole species lives in the blink of a star.
Prints: https://robrey.storenvy.com
Dance 24 x 30 in, Oil, 2016
The dance of galaxies is at once both fast, slow, and ever so graceful. It’s gravitational choreography challenges our every day concept of time. While our solar system races with a speed of 220 km/s (490,000 mph) in orbit around the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way is so vast that it still takes 240 million years to complete one orbit - far longer than humans have existed.
In about 4.5 billion years, long after we and the Earth are gone, the Milky Way is predicted to be joined by a new dance partner, the Andromeda Galaxy. As spiral arms swing wide with fluid vigor, they will gracefully collide and become one. Yet even in such a cataclysmic union, there is so much space between each star that the collision of individual solar systems is unlikely. Stars will simply slip past each other and begin a new gravitational dance.
Prints: https://robrey.storenvy.com
Pluto Unveiled 16 x 12 inches, oil on panel, 2015 In 2015 the New Horizons spacecraft gave humanity it's first detailed glimpse of Pluto and it's moon, Charon. It takes light 4.6 hours to reach Pluto from Earth. At speeds up to 84,000 km/h, it took New Horizons almost ten years to reach it's destination, allowing the face of the dwarf planet to become known to humans for the first time in history! Prints: https://robrey.storenvy.com
Nebulae 6x8 in, Oil on panel "The notion that our atoms were once part of other people and will again become part of other people after we die provides a meaningful connectedness between us and the rest of humanity, future and past." -Alan Lightman New tiny painting on everydayoriginal.com, tomorrow 8/20/24
My last card for the MtG Bloomburrow set and probably my favorite of the bunch. I enjoyed putting the action in this pose and the firefly friends were great fun!
Nettle Guard for Magic: The Gathering 18 x 24 in Oil on panel
Original art auction ends Thursday night in the MtG Art Market group, on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mtgartmarket/permalink/3926520924244764
Another card for Magic: The Gathering's Bloomburrow set! A superlatively powerful bat!
Starfall Invocation 18 x 24 in, Oil on Panel AD: Zack Stella
The auction for the original painting runs until Friday evening 7/19, and can be found here in the MtG Art Market group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mtgartmarket/permalink/3921262241437299
Spring, from the four seasons lands painted for Magic: The Gathering's Bloomburrow.
The original painting auction will run until Thursday evening 7/18 in the MtG Art Market group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mtgartmarket/permalink/3920431684853688
Island - Spring, for Magic: the Gathering Oil on panel, 24 x 18 inches AD: Sarah Wassell
Winter: Next in the four seasons land cards painted for Magic: The Gathering's Bloomburrow set! I really liked painting all the fluffy white snow in this one.
The original painting auction will run until Tuesday evening 7/16: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mtgartmarket/permalink/3918205505076306
Island - Winter, for Magic: the Gathering Oil on panel, 24 x 18 inches AD: Sarah Wassell
Here is the second of the four seasons illustrations I painted for Magic: The Gathering's new set, Bloomburrow. Same scene, same character, four seasons. This is Fall. I had a great time with these colors!
The original art auction can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mtgartmarket/permalink/3916967395200117
Island - Fall, for Magic: The Gathering Oil on panel, 24 x 18 inches AD: Sarah Wassell
A set of four land cards that I painted for Magic: The Gatherings' new setting, Bloomburrow, has just been previewed! I painted the same pond scene with the same frog character in four seasons. I had a great time imagining the life cycle of all the plants and creating scenes that captured each season. This is Summer. I'll be posting the other seasons soon! If you're interested in the original painting, it is currently up for auction until Sunday night, here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mtgartmarket/permalink/3916765758553614
Island - Summer, for Magic: The Gathering Oil on panel, 24 x 18 inches AD: Sarah Wassell
Flow 6 x 8 in, Oil on Yupo, 2021
"If I could label each of my atoms at this moment, imprint each with my Social Security number, someone could follow them for the next thousand years as they floated in air, mixed with the soil, became parts of particular plants and trees, dissolved in the ocean, and then floated again to the air. And some will undoubtedly become parts of other people, particular people. So, we are literally connected to the stars, and we are literally connected to future generations of people. In this way, even in a material universe, we are connected to all things future and past." -Alan Lightman
Waiting to Be Known Oil, 18 x 24, 2015
"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." -Sharon Begley, Science Writer From an article about astronomer Carl Sagan
The focus of this painting is the spirit of discovery, depicting Saturn, the Cassini space probe, and an allegorical figure of scientific truths yet to be discovered.
Prints: https://robrey.storenvy.com Original: https://www.robreyfineart.com/collections/114297
