Rebekah Molander shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi Rebekah, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
Mostly like Coffee and Dogs.
The dogs get up with me every morning no matter what time it is, but it’s usually pretty early, I do like to get up dark and early. I don’t sleep late. It’s my favorite time of the day, when it’s dark and still, before all the noise of everyone else being up.
We, me and the dogs, get coffee and settle into the home studio, the two big dogs curl back up in their beds and my little dog snuggles into my lap and snores and I sit with my coffee and figure out the day. I love my sticky notes and lists, I organize myself.
I like the peace in the dark calm before the day gets busy. .
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m an artist, mostly a painter, but I also work with wood and resin, I’ve done some really fun projects and pieces with wood and resin. I also build my own canvases, the frames for them, my husband Todd and I build them, we cut and plane everything ourselves and put them together by hand and then I stretch and hand gesso the canvas, so every piece from me is custom and 100% hand built and created by me from start to finish.
Painting is the heart of it for me though. That’s where my heart really is. I like that I do different things, and it never gets old, today I’m cutting and sanding, today I’m mixing pour resin, it’s all good, and it changes up my days and it keeps things interesting, but painting is the heart.
I’m a contemporary artist, I work mostly with acrylic on canvas, but oil is where I started and I still work with it for certain pieces, but for me, I can do more with acrylic.
Contemporary art for those of you who have heard the term but aren’t exactly sure what it means is really to me like I just couldn’t pick one style so I take a little bit from several and then put them all in one painting, and so I end up with series of paintings that have a particular feel to them but when you set a painting from one series next to a painting from another it almost looks like two different people painted them. Actually even within a series sometimes, this past couple of weeks I painted 3 different flowers in three completely different styles. They are all flowers but the mood and attitude and feelings are so completely different. But I love that, every one of them got something different out of me. It never gets boring for me.
Building tables and charcuterie boards and things, the time, the skill, the labor, the problem solving involved satisfies one side of me. But getting lost in a painting, taking a feeling I don’t know how to put into words and putting it on a canvas…. It’s emotional, it’s peaceful, it’s where I’m happiest.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
My brother.
Jacob was always my person in life that saw me. He was four years older than me and he was my person, my best friend from the moment I was born. He was my definition of unconditional love. Even when I was screwing up and making messes, Jacob was the one that was there telling me mistakes are how we learn, now you know that doesn’t work, but not because you were told, you know and you understand why and so you know how to move forward.
He was the only person I never felt like I had to prove myself to. I always do, feel like I have to prove myself to everyone around me. Like I want to be somewhere but everyone knows I don’t deserve it and so I’m constantly trying to prove to them and convince them and myself that I should be, that I’m smart enough, talented enough, I work hard enough. But Jacob, he just knew who I was, he didn’t just see me at my worst, he lived it with me, he was there for all my worst days and he was there for all my best days, and he knew what I was capable of on days I wasn’t sure of myself.
I am who I am today because of my brother.
There were times I got lost, it’s hard sometimes being a wife and mom and who they are becomes who you are and who you are and what you wanted to be gets lost. Even when I lost myself, Jacob knew who I was. He still saw me. Not the things I was taking care of and doing every day, he just saw me. He knew me…. some days, it felt like he knew me better than I knew myself.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Not almost, there was a time I completely gave up. In my early 20’s I completely let go of this dream. I didn’t paint for almost 20 years. Being an artist was the only thing I ever wanted to be but sometimes there are just other things in life that have to come first. I didn’t know how to make money with my art, honestly at the time I didn’t have the skill too, and I didn’t have the money or time to learn. I had a lot of people who didn’t get me and didn’t believe in living in my head and I listened to them about who I was and what I was capable of, and I was a single mom, following my dreams wasn’t what was most important, I knew my priorities, and I made the right choice. Dreams don’t always feed you and put a roof over your head. I decided what was most important and I took care of it and taking care of it became who I was and it was all consuming.
And that’s ok.
I was where I needed to be. I let go of this dream to take care of the most important thing in my life, and I would make the same choice again.
But life is constantly changing. Everything really is temporary.
If we’re lucky, we figure out how to walk away from some of those people who don’t get us, our children grow up and need us less, sometimes our health fails and it slows us down. Life and situations change and after a long time I found myself in a different position, and I had time and an opportunity and put art back in my life, with no hopes or dreams of it going anywhere, just for love of it, just to do something for me and to find myself again.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Is the public version of you the real you?
The public version of me is a real part of me.
There’s a poem by Don Balding “The Double Life” it talks about a man torn between the two sides of himself, sometimes I feel like there aren’t just two, but several sides to me.
Two main sides though… the side that loves being out and with people, the side that feels like life is an adventure and I’m excited about it and then the other side, that really could be perfectly happy never leaving the house and my dogs again. I could easily never step outside of my door, and I would be totally comfortable and happy with my pajamas and music and painting and working right here tucked away from the whole world, the side that loves the quiet and calm and comfort and seclusion of my routines.
The public usually, when they’re lucky, gets the public side of me, I try to leave the recluse side at home where she belongs, but every now and then that side accidentally wanders out and it’s pretty clear she doesn’t belong out and wandering around.
The public gets my art though and there is nothing more real and honest in me than my art. That’s the real break down of all the side, all the different pieces.
If anyone wants to know the Real Me, it’s in my paintings, not one of them, but all of them. Every one of them is just a piece but put them all together and that’s who I really am, that’s complete honesty laid out for the whole world to see, if anyone is interested in actually looking.
I don’t know that I’m that interesting though.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
Being concerned with what other people think.
Actually I was just talking to a friend about this the other day.
We only have so much time, and when it’s gone, are we going to be sad in our last breath that we didn’t give more of ourselves away?
I don’t think so.
I think I’m more concerned I’m going to be sad that I gave too much of myself away, that I spent more time trying to prove myself to people that don’t matter rather than just being myself. That I try to hard to be everything to everyone and who they need or want me to be has been more important to me than who I really am.
No isn’t a word I’m comfortable with. I say yes when I don’t want to. I keep my mouth closed when I have things I want to say.
I hope I have more than 10 years left, but this is something that’s actually been on my mind a lot lately. I don’t want to not show up for people, I never want to let anyone down or upset anyone, but I’ve been learning some hard lessons lately and no is a word I’m working on getting comfortable with, and with that I’m also working on not feeling the need to prove myself to people who are never going to see me anyway.
There just isn’t enough time, we really don’t get that long and I’m running out of pieces of me to give away, so I’m going to start keeping some.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.followyourartbyreka.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followyourartbyreka
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FollowYourArtbyReka
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6uJRjBN4WLfNVGsGhEeGjg
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@followyourartbyreka?lang=en
Image Credits
All Photos by Rebekah Molander
