Monday Art Giveaways, Smooth Ray Original #100, and The Secret to the Universe! All in this blog!

First off, the secret to the Universe is extra lime — just like Smooth Ray has been saying forever.

So what’s this about an art giveaway?

There are a bunch of new Smooth Ray Originals in the shop right now, and among them one is priced at $0.00. With free worldwide shipping, that’s a pretty good deal.

Sometimes you just need some free art in your life. Smooth Ray is committing to offering a piece of work each week, absolutely free. Need something to brighten your day? That retail therapy experience with no co-pay? Got a tiny space to fill on your wall? Check out the Smooth Ray shop!

If that’s the only thing you “buy,” then the system shouldn’t ask for any payment info, just a shipping address. Smooth Ray is grateful he can spread some art love.

As for SRO #100, that’s an epic milestone. "Truth Does Not Have Meaning.”

Meaning is for the mind, to make stories. That which is true has no meaning.

Taco shop update: Considering adding an egg sandwich to the menu. Because there is something wonderful and perfect about a simple egg sandwich.

SRO #100

Title: “The Truth Has No Meaning”

Size: 4x4.5”

Date: 2021

Medium: Watercolor on 140-pound cold pressed paper.

Status: For sale in the Smooth Ray shop!

Note: Truth has no meaning. Meaning is for the mind, to make stories.

Smooth Ray Original #100!

SRO #099

Title: “Joe looked out over the second horizon and thought, ‘What a beautiful day for a schlobtopperston!”

Needless to say, he called out of work.

The future is like that, if you let it.

Size: 3.5x4.5”

Date: 2021

Medium: Watercolor on 140-pound cold pressed paper.

Status: For sale in the Smooth Ray shop!

SRO #097

Title: “See from the center, an all outward points are encompassed.”

SRO #097

Size: 3x5”

Date: 2021

Medium: Watercolor on 140-pound cold pressed paper.

Status: For sale in the Smooth Ray shop!

SRO #096

Title: “Rays of light intersect to form an apparently-solid object.”

SRO #096

Size: 3x5”

Date: 2021

Medium: Watercolor on 140-pound cold pressed paper.

Note: Don’t be fooled.

Status: For sale in the Smooth Ray shop!

SRO #095

Title: “The paintings by the window were very interesting.”

SRO #095

Size: 4x2.5” on 4.5x6” canvas

Date: 2021

Medium: Watercolor on 140-pound cold pressed paper.

Note: Another interesting back! This is essentially two pieces of art in one Smooth Ray Original!

Status: For sale in the Smooth Ray shop!

SRO #094

Title: “It’s possible that this is what the Universe looks like.”

SRO #094

Size: 4x4.5”

Date: 2021

Medium: Watercolor on 140-pound cold pressed paper.

Status: For sale in the Smooth Ray shop!

SRO #093

Title: “On the other hand, maybe it looks like this.”

SRO #098

Size: 8x4”

Date: 2021

Medium: Watercolor on 140-pound cold pressed paper.

Status: For sale in the Smooth Ray shop!

SRO #098

Title: You’ve got it all backwards.

SRO #098

Size: 3.75x3.75”

Date: 2021

Medium: Watercolor on 140-pound cold pressed paper

Note: The world you perceive is not reality, but a break in reality. A momentary turning away from what is true.

Status: For sale in the Smooth Ray shop!

SRO #092

Title: Energy moves. This explains all.

SRO #092

Size: 4x3”

Date: 2021

Medium: Watercolor on 140-pound cold pressed paper

Status: For sale in the Smooth Ray shop!

SRO #091

Title: The center remains steady. Mostly.

SRO #091

Size: 4x4”

Date: 2021

Medium: Watercolor on 140-pound cold pressed paper

Status: For sale in the shop!
Free Worldwide Shipping!
The Secret is Extra Lime!

SRO #090

Title: The Mystery of the Murdered Fortune Teller

SRO #090

Size: 3x3

Date: 2021

Medium: Watercolor on 140-pound cold pressed paper

Status: Smooth Ray Original #090 was donated to a free art project hosted by Higher Self in Portland, Oregon.

Note: Years ago, Smooth Ray created a series of postcards based on text-based ephemera. Vintage stamps, old encyclopedias, book catalog cards … stuff that basically doesn’t exist anymore.

You can purchase those postcards here, in case you’re the type that still writes letters and is nostalgic for a more tactile world. Smooth Ray sure is.

SRO #089

Title: In an infinite universe, there is no room for chaos.

SRO #089

Size: 4.5x4.5

Date: 2021

Medium: Watercolor on 140-pound cold pressed paper

Status: In private collection.

Note: There’s an old riddle that Smooth Ray has been thinking about lately: “If a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound?”

The scientific answer is pretty straightforward — No, because sound requires an ear to interpret vibration. No ear, no sound.

However, the question is really about perception and existence. It asks one to consider, does an unperceived object exist?

The wikipedia page for this “riddle” (or perhaps it is a zen koan) is fascinating.

The question is often attributed to the philosopher George Berkeley, but its modern format didn’t evolve until 200 years after he wrote, in 1710:

“The objects of sense exist only when they are perceived; the trees therefore are in the garden... no longer than while there is somebody by to perceive them.”

We make our world through the act of perceiving it. Which is to say, we are our world — we are not separate from it.

YOU ARE LOVE.

SRO #088

Title: There was always a bottle of olive oil sitting by the window. "A most important elixir," she called it.

SRO #088

Size: 3.5x2.5

Date: 2021

Medium: Watercolor on 140-pound cold pressed paper

Note: Something a little different on the back of this one, instead of the classic Smooth Ray signature. This is a truly special Smooth Ray Original — and a pretty amazing bottle of olive oil.

Good olive oil is important, particularly in a dish like gambas al ajillo, which has only 3 ingredients: shrimp, garlic and olive oil. Smooth Ray lived in Barcelona for a brief time, and often had meals of garlicky shrimp and the ubiquitous bocadilla de tortilla.

SRO #088 is for sale on eBay.

SRO #087

Title: Some folks called it progress. Many still do.

SRO #087

Size: 5x4”

Date: 2021

Medium: Watercolor on 140-pound cold pressed paper

Note: The first electric power lines were built in the late 1800s, and not too much of the technology has changed, until recently. When Smooth Ray sees power lines furiously criss-crossing a country road, he is reminded that time often appears to pass like garlic in the pan: it goes slow, until it goes fast. Not much happens, until everything appears to change at once.

**SOLD** For sale in the shop **SOLD**

SRO #067-086

Title: YOU ARE LOVE

SRO #067-086

Size: 4x4” print on canvas of varying size

Date: 2021

Medium: Relief printing, water-based ink on 140-pound cold pressed paper

Note: Love is what you ARE, fundamentally: energy, light, peace, happiness, joy. Love.

Love isn't something you need to find. You aren't lacking in it. You ARE it.

Will be distributed in the Trumansburg-Ithaca area.

2 others available for purchase (#050 and #065). Support the project!

There’s also a sticker.

SRO #047-066

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Title: YOU ARE LOVE

SRO #047-066

Size: 4x4” print on canvas of varying size

Date: 2021

Medium: Relief printing, water-based ink on 140-pound cold pressed paper

Note: Love is what you ARE, fundamentally: energy, light, peace, happiness, joy. Love.

Love isn't something you need to find. You aren't lacking in it. You ARE it.

18 will be distributed in the Ithaca-Trumansburg area. If you find one, leave a comment!

2 others available for purchase (#050 and #065). Support the project!

There’s also a sticker.

SRO #046

Title: What makes a thing exist?

SRO #046

Size: 5x3”

Date: 2021

Medium: Watercolor on 140-pound cold pressed paper

Note: Will Smooth Ray’s taco shop exist one day? Who says it doesn’t already?

True enough, You can’t go right now and order a smoothie or a breakfast burrito. You can’t pay a buck for a beer, and then go sit in the surf and let the waves wash over your feet. You can’t … And, Smooth Ray has already done it.

Smooth Ray has seen it, imagined it: blending those bananas and limes, frying up the perfect fish taco. Smooth Ray has handed you bliss on a plate.

What’s the difference between a memory and a daydream?

If time is an illusion and all of life temporary, then does When a thing exists really make a difference?

Go ahead and put your order in. Just don’t be impatient.

Status: SRO#046 is in the private collection of a prolific and well-known artist.

SRO #044

Title: When the crack first appeared, we didn't think much of it.

SRO #044

Size: 3.5x2.5”

Date: 2021

Medium: Watercolor on 140-pound cold pressed paper

Note: Will be left in random location in Trumansburg, NY.

SRO #045

Title: In the future, cities will be mostly metaphorical.

SRO #045

Author: Smooth Ray

Size: 3.5x2.5”

Date: 2021

Medium: Watercolor on 140-pound cold pressed paper

Note: A rare mis-stamp! This could be the next Inverted Jenny!

WIll be left at random location in Trumansburg, NY.