When Worlds Collide: Passions, Experiences, and People Merge Across the Medical and Creative Journeys of Artist Ray Paul
By Cassidy Hettesheimer
There’s often something timeless about both art and its inspiration, visuals and emotions that transcend decades, societies, and circumstances. Something universally relatable-- something like the struggles of organic chemistry class.
Such is the case with artist Ray Paul, who once sat in a graduate-level organic chemistry course at University of Cincinnati and thought “What am I doing here?” before promptly switching to pursue his MFA in art. Organic chemistry is consistently ranked by resources like CollegeVine as one of the hardest college courses-- a timeless uniter, forcing students to look inward, bear their souls, and analyze their deepest passions in the face of stereochemistry and alkynes.
However, regardless of, on paper, his switch from graduating with a bachelor’s degree in biology from Florida State in 1986 to earning a masters of art in 1991, Paul never viewed his interests in science and art as oppositional or exclusive. Paul grew up drawing and playing piano while also roaming through the Ohio woods in search of insects, snakes, and salamanders. His father was a computer scientist. Art and science coexisted in Paul’s life far before they blended together in his paintings, and so eventually, biological inspirations began to peek through in his work.
“I think that everything in life, as an artist, it all gets dumped into a big bucket and tossed around, and hopefully it comes out in a meaningful work of art,” Paul said. “And so all my time as a biologist, spent looking through microscopes and at cellular forms, has come through.”
However, in 2011, the cellular forms that Paul looked at through microscopes became his own. After noticing a protrusion in his left flank, Paul sought medical help and was diagnosed with myxofibrosarcoma, a form of cancer that affects one’s soft connective tissue. This type of cancer is rare, with sarcomas as a larger category comprising less than one percent of all adult cancers, according to the Sarcoma Foundation of America.
A neighbor and radiation oncologist, Dr. Jacob Scott, helped Paul get into the sarcoma clinic at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. Over the course of eight years, Paul underwent 13 surgeries, three radiation courses, chemotherapy, and a clinical trial.
Throughout his treatment, Paul often posted medical updates to Facebook, finding support in friends, family, and those helping him at Moffitt.
“I made the decision pretty early on to post my condition on Facebook, knowing that this was a pretty dire situation I was in, and I basically needed all the good energy and goodwill and love and support from all my friends because I knew it's gonna be a very tough battle, and I was going to have to withdraw inside myself to try to... combat this,” Paul said. “I've had a great team at Moffitt and they're all very supportive, almost became like friends as well as, you know, physicians… I don't think I could have made it through without that whole kind of warm blanket of support from everybody.”
It was both a friend and an employee at Moffitt-- aforementioned neighbor, Dr. Jacob Scott-- who helped Paul realize that his love of art and his current medical situation could blend to create a unique, personal series of paintings that tapped into multiple of Paul’s interests. In 2014, after talking with Scott, Paul began working on his sarcoma series, canvas paintings that drew visually from prints of his own cancer cells.
“I'm… actually staring, you know, the devil right in the eye, and that helps to maybe make it a little less scary. I was able to paint directly over the top of it and attack it with my artwork and all my spirit. So I think it's really strengthened my artwork and it's given me more of a purpose in my artwork.”
Dendritic Swarm, Ray Paul
Acrylic, latex, enamel, on canvas printed with a digital image of Paul’s metastatic myxofibrosarcoma, 2013
Necrosis 4, Ray Paul
Acrylic, latex, enamel on canvas printed with a digital image of Paul’s metastatic myxofibrosarcoma, 2013
Colorful, surreal, and high-energy, Paul’s sarcoma series consists primarily of water-based mediums like acrylic, latex, enamel, gloss, and satin paints, all with varying levels of viscosity. An avid musician, Paul listens to music as he works, letting the paints mix together into shapes and colors, manipulating the canvas so that gravity comes into play. As he turns and shifts the canvas, he lets the paint roll, slide, and glide. Lively, abstract patterns appear as the paints combine and react to one another.
“You have all the ingredients together, and you're kind of setting it into motion,” Paul said. “I basically don't really have a set view or image of what the final work is going to be. And so that's why it's very, very fun and exciting to set the painting down on the floor after the process is completed and going back in to check on how it changes over time.”
Through Moffitt Cancer Center, Paul has also collaborated with Dr. Marilyn Bui, a pathologist at the hospital’s sarcoma clinic. During a period of time in which Ray was, as he put it, “going downhill very fast,” Paul and Scott had approached Dr. Bui about using photos and slides of Paul’s cells to create his art. In the seven years since Paul first approached Dr. Bui, the pair have collaborated on an art pathology book and have participated in several talks and interviews for Moffitt and various pathology publications.
Paul’s paintings now reside in the radiation department and the mathematical oncology department at Moffitt, further bridging his medical and artistic journeys. Scott helped connect Paul to the mathematical oncology department’s physicians, mathematicians, chemists, and biologists, who now see Paul’s work on display when they gather in the center’s Imaginarium and work on treatments for cancer.
“I really enjoy their company… and I feel like that's tying my biology background back into my art and my cancer… I'm still friends with them today, and we get together as much as we can,” Paul said.
As Paul continues to create and share his paintings, he hopes that combining his experiences and interests into positive, energizing artwork will continue to both drive his own creations and inspire others.
“Art brought me back from a very dark, dark place in my recovery, and it gave me hope and a kind of a reason to, you know, get back from being a cancer patient, and get back to being an artist again, and back to living,” said Paul. “And so hopefully, I'm infusing my artwork with that energy, and hope, and color. Hopefully, when somebody in my similar situation views my artwork, they see the hope and the beauty in the struggle.”
We are thankful that Ray Paul has shared his story with the Ever Collective, and we look forward to further sharing his story by spreading his art and growing the collective of storytelling art pieces created by artists around the world.
