Ray Paul - A Colorful Man & Artist

I recently met the Tampa artist Ray Paul at an informal gathering, having been invited by a mutual friend. I was a bit skeptical about viewing art in someone’s home but went willingly. We stepped back in time that night. A time splashed with color, music, imagination, and stories.

 As we chatted, I felt a kinship with Ray. We are fellow Ohioans, although he hails from one side of the state and I from the other. Having both been born in Cleveland, I was whisked south toward Youngstown, and he to the west to Cincinnati by way of West Lafayette, Indiana. Our childhoods were similar; always outside, playing in the open air and woods, and falling in love with art forms – his drawing, mine the written word. As a bit of an introvert, the move from Indiana to Ohio was traumatic for Ray. The other kids didn’t understand his keen interest in nature, biology, and drawing and would throw rocks at him. This may be where many of our similarities end, but the rest of the Ray Paul story begins.

Ray Paul & Jacquie F. Galvin - April 2022

 We are close in age, and in 1969 during the psychedelic music era, and close on the heels of the summer of love, we were too young to realize the implications of the world’s events. While I was reading in the trees and working on my first short stories, Ray was collecting butterflies, studying the beauty of the woods, and voraciously drawing whatever he saw. His art expanded to music when he began taking piano lessons. While he hated practicing and the “nerve-wracking” recitals, these lessons would be the base of his musical future, and the inspiration for the colorful works gracing his home and garage music studio.

The music legends of the era such as Neil Young and Led Zeppelin steered Ray to the guitar, the bass, and to percussion. By seventh grade, he was doing KISS covers and graduating to cover bands and original music in high school. At the University of Cincinnati, where his father was a professor, he found like-minded musicians with which to jam while he studied his first two years of biology. But his studiousness turned to restlessness, and he was off to other areas of the country. After a vacation to Sanibel Island where the beaches were pristine and the weather was, well, not like Cinci, Ray investigated the biology curriculum at Florida State and enrolled to finish his degree. He then went back to FSU to take three semesters of art classes to build a body of work to pursue a Master’s in Fine Art.

To be able to incorporate biology with art was not only a passion but the next phase for Ray. He returned to the cold of Cincinnati to UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning to get his MFA in painting. After achieving his MFA, Ray returned to the warmth of Florida where he had many friends in Tampa. He “did his time” in gigs such as lifeguard, swim instructor, and children’s art teacher. As time progressed, so did Ray’s work and over twenty-five years, he has produced hundreds of pieces and began playing music again. Many of these pieces have been done in the last year and a half - a very productive time for Ray. His home is an art museum of popping prints and colorful canvases.

But as life tends to do, it threw him a curve in 2011. Not feeling his best, Ray visited his doctor to find out what the pains and symptoms were about. The “C” word is never a welcome subject and Ray’s was more unwelcome than most. The symptoms turned out to be a rare sarcoma of the soft and connective tissues called myxofibrosarcoma. From 2011 to 2018 Ray dealt with tumors on his left side and his lungs, moving between three courses of radiation, fourteen surgeries, a clinical trial, and chemotherapy. This particular sarcoma occurs in about one percent of the population and played a large part in Ray’s transformation back to his music during his healing process. In 2013, he recorded the album Just Tell Me with his band “The Absurd”.

In addition to his music, Ray became passionate about yoga. This led him to produce music for his friend Rebecca Weiss’s yoga YouTube channel - My Self is the Star. 

His own daily yoga practices have helped with his health by balancing his chakras and his energy. Ray refers to this as “artwork inside and out”. These influences have helped with his emotions, his music, and his artistic expression as well as his ability to give back to the cancer community that supported him. He donated an original cancer cell painting to Moffitt Cancer Center’s Radiation Department based on his own sarcoma. He has two pieces hanging in the Mathematical Oncology Department, one of which was used as a collaboration for a poster and a t-shirt for their annual conference. Ray then became an author himself with a collaboration with his pathologist titled The Healing Art of Pathology. 

‘Dendritic Swarm’ by Ray Paul

In 2014, Ray was honored with an exhibition of his work at Moffitt titled “My Sarcoma”, curated by the USF Contemporary Art Museum. Post-treatment in 2019, Ray was awarded an exhibition and a talk with his pathologist, Dr. Marilyn Bui at Roche Diagnostics in Tuscon, Arizona. Ray and his art have traveled to Australia, Miami, and New York City. Future bucket list travels include Scandinavia and Barbados. His current goal is to slow down and be more present at the moment to enjoy the process. When asked about his buyer type, Ray stated that they come from all walks of life and have different uses for his art. Some are corporate clients, but with all patrons, his main purpose is for them to think, react and get in touch with their own souls.

Jacquie & her ‘Grant Board’ by Ray Paul - April 2022

Having produced my own “work of art” with Grace for Grant: A Journey with an Old Soul, I traded a book as a down payment for a beautifully painted, working skateboard to honor Grant. When Ray had finished the book, his praise was beautiful and appreciated:

Hi Jacquie! I just wanted to say I finished the book! I am still digesting it all, but wow, it was utterly compelling, beautiful, and courageous. Thank you for sharing. All my best! Ray

And then there was a follow-up text, which was not surprising as it is the hallmark of my son’s other-worldly existence:

Just a little story: as I was on the back deck reading the part where you got stung by a wasp, one landed on my shoulder, then proceeded to hover in front of my face, flittering an inch from my eyeballs. Not threateningly, but curious.

My last question to Ray? What’s your favorite piece?

It’s the one that’s yet to be produced.

Now there’s an outlook you can invest in…