Rob Rey

Artwork by fine artist and illustrator, Rob Rey.

[robreyart]

Dust of Life Oil, 24 x 18 inches

Understanding who we are in the universe involves understanding where we come from. How did life begin? As we investigate, we find that the building blocks from which life likely formed, organic (carbon containing) molecules and amino acids, are everywhere in space. In swirling clouds of gas and dust that we analyze spectroscopically, and on the comets and asteroids that our spacecraft have visited. From simple hydrogen and helium created in the Big Bang, the stars have fused the elements and bonded them into the complex molecules necessary for biology over billions of years. The cosmos seems to be primed for life.

This painting and its preliminary study are part of the third annual Character in Context show. The largest exhibition of original illustration in the Western U.S. opening this Friday, June 5th at the A.R. Mitchell Museum of Western Art in Trinidad, Colorado.

[robreyart]

A new tiny painting coming to EveryDayOriginal.com tomorrow morning, 5/20.

Simple Beginnings 6 x 8 inches, Oil

"There is grandeur in this view of life... from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." - Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

Trilobites were among the most successful of all early animals, existing in oceans for almost 270 million years. Though the process of evolution, life has flourished into the millions of amazing species we see around us on earth today, including ourselves. Evolution tells us about our history and that informs our understanding of who we are. Having originated in a common single-celled ancestor, from bacteria to trees, reptiles to mammals, all life on earth is one very old and very large family.

[robreyart]

Return to the Stars 8 x 6 inches A new tiny painting available this Friday on EveryDayOriginal.com

Some of your atoms, mostly hydrogen, come from the beginning of the universe. Many more were created in the super novae of ancient dying stars. In the time since then, your atoms have been part of many things: oceans and oaks, dinosaurs and dandelions, foxes and fireflies. For a brief moment, these disparate, voyaging elements have come together to be you, to feel the breeze, and to wonder at the night sky. One day they will move on, scattered and woven into many more incarnations before eventually returning to space in nebulous clouds to birth new stars.

[robreyart]

Observation 24 x 20 in, 2014

Science is more than a body of knowledge, it’s a way of thinking.

Early philosophers used to believe we could understand the world simply by thinking about it, that what made sense to us must be true. But, Observation showed us that the universe often does not conform to our expectations or desires. It doesn’t matter how much we wish something to be true, how beautiful a theory is, or who came up with it. To find out what is true we have to look and pay attention to how the universe really works.

The methods of science have pulled humanity out of dangerous superstitions and entrenched ignorance. They have allowed us to find real solutions to stubborn problems from hunger and disease to communication. In the scientific method, Observation leads the way. We may not always like what we see, particularly if it runs against our cherished beliefs, but if we accept it with humility, we will find ourselves better able to confront the problems we face.

Prints: https://robrey.storenvy.com

[robreyart]

Magnetosphere, an allegory 30 x 24 in, Oil on panel, 2021, homage to Fumée D'Ambre Gris by John Singer Sargent.

In addition to the warmth and light we receive daily, our sun expels a constant barrage of dangerous charged particles called the solar wind. When solar storms occur, flares and coronal mass ejections can be thrown our way at speeds of millions of kilometers per hour. Luckily, movements within earths molten metal core generate a protective magnetic shield around our home planet. Without our magnetosphere to protect us, the solar wind may have long ago stripped away our atmosphere, leaving Earth looking much more like Mars looks today: barren, dry, and lifeless.

Human wellbeing has been shown to benefit greatly from the experience and practice of gratitude, whether that gratitude is directed toward someone else or not. Most of us don’t spend much time thinking about our magnetosphere, but it’s one of the many extraordinary things that make life possible on our little world. This can serve as a reminder to take notice of other things we may be taking for granted in our lives.

Prints: https://robrey.storenvy.com

[robreyart]

A little light for the season's dark days, the light of life and the natural world. In all the vastness of space, as of yet, we know of only one planet that supports life. At least within some great distance from here, life is rare. Each organism being the exquisite and detailed product of billions of years of evolution, life is precious. The process of science has revealed a luminous, living planet, more amazing than we could have ever imagined, where the intricacies of biology are miracles of evolution and our consciousness is a gift of natural processes that allow us to experience what it is to be alive.

Bioluminescence : Altruism 16 x 12 in, Oil on panel, 2020

Prints available: https://robrey.storenvy.com

[robreyart]

Flyby 16 x 12 in, oil on panel This painting also debuted, and sold, at the IX Art Show last month. Prints Available: https://robrey.storenvy.com

The first step to landing on a new world is getting a closer look.

The Moon landing can remind us that in the face of daunting challenges, the human capacity for reason provides a light of hope. Our abilities to understand the world around us through scientific methods, to develop new technology, and to plan for the future have made us the first species in Earth’s four and a half billion year history to bring life to the moon.

Clearly, no single person could have reached the moon on their own. Our species ability to work together is one of our greatest assets. Collectively, we have the power to improve our lives: to produce more food, to cure disease, and respond to major threats. When we work together, we can accomplish amazing feats, and overcome obstacles that would doom other species. Yet, these gifts of evolution do not guarantee success. When we act with careless disregard for our biosphere, or when we put our energies into fighting each other, we also have the ability to defeat ourselves. Where will we go from here?

[robreyart]

Nebulae 12 x 16 in, oil on panel A new painting from an earlier study, Nebulae debuted at the IX Art Show. It's now back and on my website, original and prints.

"If you could tag each of the atoms in your body and follow them backward in time, through the air that you breathed during your life, through the food that you ate, back through the geological history of the Earth, through the ancient seas and soil, back to the formation of the Earth out of the solar nebular cloud, and then out into interstellar space, you could trace each of your atoms, those exact atoms, to particular massive stars in the past of our galaxy. At the end of their lifetimes, those stars exploded and spewed out their newly forged atoms into space, later to condense into planets and oceans and plants and your body at this moment." -Alan Lightman

[robreyart]

The Winds of Neptune 24 x 18 in, Oil on panel

This new painting from an earlier study will be coming with me to the IX Arts Show in Reading PA, next week!

The most distant planet in our solar system experiences the strongest sustained winds - up to 1,300 miles per hour - over eight times faster than the winds of a Category 5 hurricane. Its largest moon, Triton, hosts the coldest known surface temperature: just 38 Kelvin (or -391°F). Its surface is coated in frozen nitrogen - colder than the liquid nitrogen you may have experienced in science class. If we were to visit either world, we would have a hard time breathing, among other problems, because at these temperatures even oxygen freezes to snow.

Here on Earth, with our comfortably balanced atmosphere, we don’t typically experience the kinds of extremes that can be found elsewhere in the solar system, so we have a hard time imagining what’s possible. Learning about the solar system opens our eyes to these possibilities. For example, Venus - once similar to Earth - has a runaway greenhouse effect that pushes surface temperatures above 850°F, hot enough to melt lead.

Climate change on Earth shouldn’t take us to Venus-like extremes, but we can’t be sure how feedback loops - like melting permafrost or shrinking arctic ice* - might exacerbate warming. We don’t need lead-melting heat to face serious consequences to our food supply and ecosystems.

-

*As permafrost melts, hundreds of thousands of years worth of frozen organic matter decompose and release greenhouse gasses. Shrinking arctic ice exposes darker patches of land and water that absorb more of the sun’s heat instead of reflecting it back out to space.

[robreyart]

Night Migration Oil, 30 x 20 in, 2024

This painting will be coming with me to the IX Art Show next month in Reading, PA, Oct 22-26! (For real this time, I'm going to try not to be sick this year)

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.

[robreyart]

Flyby 8 x 6 inches

A new tiny painting coming to Every Day Original tomorrow morning (8/20)! https://www.everydayoriginal.com

[robreyart]

My last card for Magic: The Gathering's Edge of Eternities set has been posted. Filling this scene with all sorts of swirly, nebulous clouds was a great time.

Fabled Passage Art Director: Zack Stella

___

Original painting available here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mtgartmarket/permalink/4275769172653269

[robreyart]

Another card for Magic: The Gathering's Edge of Eternities set has just been posted! A bit of a different subject for me, but it was a good time creating this writhing soup of slivers. Art Director: Taylor Ingvarsson ___ Offers for the original painting are being heard until Sunday night. More info at the MTG Art Market Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mtgartmarket/posts/4271246476438872

[robreyart]

18 x 24 inches, Oil on Panel A new card for Magic: The Gathering's, Edge of Eternities set has just been posted! It was a lot to fit into a card, but I enjoyed the opportunity to paint the black hole.

___

Offers for the original painting are being heard until Thursday night. More info: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mtgartmarket/permalink/4255450801351773/

[robreyart]

Reaching Europa 18 x 24 inches, Oil, 2015 “All my life, I've wondered about life beyond the earth. On those countless other planets that we think circle other suns, is there also life? Might the beings of other worlds resemble us, or would they be astonishingly different? What would they be made of? In the vast Milky Way galaxy, how common is what we call life? The nature of life on earth and the quest for life elsewhere are the two sides of the same question: the search for who we are.” -Carl Sagan

An allegory of our scientific aspirations to explore Jupiter's moon, Europa. As the video below from NASA explains, Europa holds intriguing possibilites for finding life beyond Earth. NASA Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz9VhCQbPAk Prints: https://robrey.storenvy.com

[robreyart]

Fusion Lighting the Stars 18 x 24 inches, Oil on panel, 2020

Stars are a balance of two enormous forces: gravity and nuclear fusion. On its own, gravity would crush a star into the oblivion of a black hole or another super-dense remnant. But nuclear fusion pushes back, releasing so much energy that the outer layers of the star are literally blown away, aloft from the core, and in equilibrium with gravity. From lightyears away, these continuous cataclysmic explosions flutter as faint candles in our night sky.

Stars shine longer than we can comprehend, billions of years, but eventually the fuel of fusion runs out and gravity prevails. In the span of the universe, stars exist as temporary states of matter that will one day transition into other things. Much of their mass will be crushed, but in the process, many will fuse carbon, the other elements of life, and form planetary nebula. Later, these nebula will  condense into new solar systems, and perhaps be part of some other temporary state of matter lucky enough to be able think about it.

Prints: https://robrey.storenvy.com

[robreyart]

Voyager Passing A Nebula 6x8 inches, Oil on panel A new tiny painting coming to EveryDayOriginal.com tomorrow morning!

The Voyager 1 spacecraft became the first human made object to enter interstellar space in 2012. At a distance of more than 20 light-hours, it is the furthest any human made object has ever traveled from Earth. In case it is ever found by intelligent life, Voyager carries a golden phonograph record of sounds and images of earth.

"The engineers projected a one-billion-year shelf life for the golden phonograph records. How long is a billion years? In a billion years the continents of Earth would be so altered that we would not recognize the surface of our own planet. One thousand million years ago, the most complex life forms on Earth were bacteria. In the midst of the nuclear arms race, our future, even in the short term seemed a dubious prospect. Those of us privileged to work on the making of the Voyager message did so with a sense of sacred purpose. It was conceivable that, Noah-like, we were assembling the ark of human culture, the only artifact that would survive into the unimaginably far distant future." - Ann Druyan