Today we’d like to introduce you to Rebekah Molander.
Hi Rebekah, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My name is Rebekah and I am a local Houston Artist. I’ve lived in about a 40 mile radius my whole life. All I ever wanted to be was an artist. When I was little I just wanted to make beautiful things, but as I got older, and the more I went through in life, the more stuff I just kept shoving down, the more I just wanted to let it out, draw a line around it and put it out into the world.
I’m 37 and just stepping into the art world. I took the long road here. I kept seeing it, the road to the art world, it was right in front of me when I was 18 and got accepted to art school, with a scholarship, that in the end, I turned down. It’s always been right there, all I have had to do was go right at the fork, but as much as I always wanted to, I just keep going left.
Left was the right choice. Left got me this great kid of mine. The left path introduced me to my best friend and now husband. The left path has been pretty great to me.
Somewhere in my 20’s, between being a single mom, and some health issues, I think probably when I was sinking into an angry hole trying to wrap my head around what being diagnosed with a chronic central nervous system disorder meant, I completely let go of the dream and lost sight of the road.
Those weren’t my most graceful years, but I pulled myself back up. I spent a lot of time reading, I spent a lot of time focusing on all the great things I have, and stopped focusing on all the ways my life was different and the things I couldn’t do anymore, and took more time to do the things that made my soul happy. I quit my physically demanding job, with the complete support of my awesome husband and then I picked up a paintbrush for the first time in 17 years.
It wasn’t ever that the path to the right wasn’t meant for me, it just wasn’t the right time for it. At 35 I rediscovered my passion. George Eliot said, “It’s never too late to be who you might have been”. With that in mind, in August of 2020, I emailed my favorite radio host Rod Ryan. We were 6 months into a pandemic, a terrible time to try and start something new. All the music world and all the art world were struggling, and all I wanted to do was be a part of it.
So I emailed Rod and said hey, you promote so much local stuff, maybe you can help. Houston has some great artists, they have these great Art Events that are just starting to open back up, would you tell people to go see some art. Art Local! You don’t have to say me, just promote Art. Well, he did, and he actually did promote me, and I sold my First painting that day to one of his listeners who looked me up on Instagram.
Then he forwarded my email to his friend Taft McWhorter, who is an amazing Houston Artist and Philanthropist. So, later that day I got an email from Taft, introducing himself and asking if it would be ok if he gave me a call. Since then, for the last 14 months Taft and his wife Dana have been not just great mentors to me, but great friends. They’ve become family. Taft called me a few times every month and talked to me a bit about the business side of being an artist and encouraged me to keep learning, keep trying new things, and never stop growing.
In January, Taft invited me to be a part of “The Seekers” Houston Artist Collective. Since February my art has been hanging in Taft’s Studio in Winter Street in Sawyer Yards.
On August 20, 2020, I was just a girl sitting in a room drawing a line around her thoughts. On August 21, 2020, Rod Ryan told everyone listening to Art Local, and while they’re at it, check out this girl, Rebekah Molander, and at least one person did, and I sold my very first painting. Today is October 20, 2021, it’s 425 days later, I am part of the Houston Artist Collective, “The Seekers”, and my art is always on display in Taft McWhorter’s Winter Street Studio B1 in Sawyer Yards, I have done solo as well as group shows, I’ve gotten to be involved in the Susan G. Komen Paint the District Pink Charity Art Auction, my art has hung in the Missouri City City Hall Building, and I have gotten to be part of a local Art Gallery. To date, I have 42 paintings in 33 different homes. Today I’m an Artist.
Rod Ryan and Taft McWhorter changed my life. I’m still not sure what it was that made either of them take interest in and help me, but they have changed my world, and I absolutely love it. I have met some of the best people this past year, collectors and other artists. I have learned and grown so much. I have no idea what’s next, but I know it involves art, and I know I’m excited about it.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s been an incredible road!
Life is bumpy. We all have struggles, we fall down so we can learn to pick ourselves back up. I’ve fallen down a lot, but I always get back up. Every time I’ve stumbled I’ve learned something new.
I’ve learned my husband Todd will stand by me and show up for me always, no matter what, I can always count on and lean on him. I’ve learned to not be limited by other people’s thoughts, opinions or expectations of me, no one but me knows what I’m capable of. I’ve learned the difference between living and surviving. I’ve learned I can’t grow inside my comfort zone. I’ve learned when you don’t know what to do for yourself, start with doing something for someone else. I’ve learned sometimes, suffering is just suffering, it doesn’t make you stronger, it doesn’t build character, it only hurts, and that some things and people you just need to walk away from and let go. I’ve learned anyone who requires me to shrink myself or make myself smaller to fit into their box, isn’t someone I need. I’ve learned shining the light on other’s success and happiness doesn’t dim mine in the slightest. I’ve learned I’m responsible for my own happiness, and I want to surround myself with people who support and encourage that, because not only is it no one else’s responsibility to create that for me, no one deserves to have that much power over me that they control it. I’ve learned there is always room for growth. I’ve learned I need to be more patient with myself. I’ve learned the importance of passion. I’ve learned I can be a lot, and I’m not for everyone. I’ve learned I very often don’t see things the way everyone else does, and that’s a strength for me, not a weakness. I’ve learned that softness is not weakness. Kindness and gentleness does not mean small and fragile. It takes a lot of courage and strength to be so delicate in a world that can be so cruel. I’ve learned to be the person I’ve needed most in my life. I’ve learned life is a balance between what we can control and what we can not and I’m working on living somewhere between effort and surrender.
No, my road hasn’t been smooth, but it’s been incredible, and I wouldn’t change any of it.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I have a few different series I’m working on right now, but lately, I have really been enjoying combining Acrylic Pours and Swipes with a more detailed styled focal point.
For instance, I have a series of nudes I’m doing, that I call my “Beatles Girls” where I start with an Acrylic Swipe and then go back and free-hand sort of a shadowed outline of a girl over it. It’s sort of a free flow meets focus.
I think a lot of my style right now reflects that balance between control and letting go. The Acrylic Pours and Swipes are a lot about letting go for me, literally going with the flow of the paint. I can control it to a point, but it’s going to flow it’s on way, if I keep going into it I’m just going to end up with a muddy mess, I have to take a breath and step back and let it do it’s on thing, but then I go back in and add these figures over it, and free handing with paint, you have to be a bit in control. Once you put a line down, there it is, you better mean it.
So I started with the Acrylic Pours with my “Consciousness Series” and for me, those are a lot about letting go, and lightness and the beauty in chaos. I’ve done a lot of these where I go back into them and paint these bubbles sorta floating through them. They sorta add movement and flow to the painting and give you a focal point but keep it feeling light.
And recently I just started a series I’m calling “The Sound of Art”. If paintings are what feelings look like, then music is what feelings sound like. I’m a big believer that Art & Music shine a light of meaning on ordinary life, they wash the dust of everyday life off your soul, they can bring you down and lift you back up, they have the power to transport you through time, they bring passion to life. Where words fail, art and music speak. It’s definitely a series about passion for me. So far I only have three pieces in this series but I currently have two more that I’m working on right now. The style isn’t completely new for me, but the subject matter is, and I am really excited about it.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Not just for me, for any artist, just show up to art events and buy art from living artists. Houston has an amazing art scene. There are so many events.
Mitch does a First Saturday Arts market at 540 W 19th St, Houston, TX 77008. It’s an outdoor Art Market that’s open to the public the First Saturday of every month. Todd and I will be there with our big purple tent November 6th!
Sawyer Yards is this awesome industrial redevelopment of warehouses that have been converted into studios. Somewhere between three and four hundred Local Artists occupy the space and work and display their artwork. It’s one of the Nation’s Largest Artist Complexes and the Second Saturday of every month we open our doors to the public from Noon-5pm and you can come and talk to the artists and look at and buy art. You can find me there in Taft McWhorter’s Studio B1 in the Winter Street building every Second Saturday.
Hardy and Nance Studios is located at 902 Hardy St. I don’t have studio space there, but some really incredible artists do. They hold public and private events.
Houston also does the Bayou City Art Festival biannually in the Spring and Fall, and hosts Art On The Avenue every fall.
Houston’s Art Scene is really amazing. There are almost always events going on. Just show up, walk around, talk to the artist, if you see something that you connect with, it’s such a cool thing. When you buy art from real artists at events like this, it’s like buying the shirt from the band at their concert, you didn’t just get a shirt, you’re taking home a moment and a connection. And for us, the artist, to get to talk to you, to hear what you see in our art, how you connected to it, it’s such a cool thing. That’s what it’s all about. We’re pouring our hearts on canvas and then for a person to see it and feel it, it’s such a cool thing.
Contact Info:
- Email: FollowYourArtByReka@gmail.com
- Website: https://followyourartbyreka.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followyourartbyreka/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FollowYourArtbyReka
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6uJRjBN4WLfNVGsGhEeGjg
Image Credits
Rebekah Molander
