Whenever I listen to my gut, really listen to it, I usually get anxious because I experience sensations that typically go unnoticed when not focusing on said viscera and worry myself sick, which makes my gut work overtime in a vicious cycle of Pepto abuse. You may as well get something more than a pink tongue for your trouble.

“Trust Your Instincts” is the motto of INCOGNITO, the fourth annual art sale benefiting the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Over a hundred artists from all over the world have donated 8x10 pieces for the event, with tickets starting at $100 for entrance to this festive reception with enough alcohol to make Jackson Pollock teetotal (after Las Vegas, art openings are the No. 1 consumer of spirits in the country.)

All art at INCOGNITO is $300, including works by Gary Baseman, Ed Ruscha, Charles Arnoldi and Barbara Kruger, which have sold for 10,000 times that price (Yes, those works were bigger than by 8x10, but you can honestly tell that art student you’re trying to impress that you own an Ed Ruscha and invite them back to your place to see it...).

Sound too good to be true? It is. Because all the pieces in INCOGNITO are signed on the back and only after purchase is the artist’s identity revealed.

Even if you don’t purchase any art, it’s worth the price of admission to watch the faces of art snobs, positive they got the Ruscha, when they discover they got a piece they never initially liked from an artist they “never %@*^’in heard of!” (direct quote and scene from last year).

Sound too bad to be true? It isn’t. At the $100 price range there’s no requirement to purchase, and even at the higher ticket levels, which include a voucher for one piece of art, you’re guaranteed to find something worth hanging.

This isn’t about trusting your instincts, but trusting your eyes.

Santa Monica Museum of Art is located at Bergamot Station G1, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica. 7 p.m.-9:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.smmoa.org.