Rebecca’s first art class was a general education requirement during her freshman year at Illinois State University. Her professor told her that the large foam/plaster sculpture she had created looked like Henry Moore’s work. Thinking he was accusing her of copying she said, “Where does he sit?”  Her professor smiled and replied, “You’ve got a lot to learn.”

 

Encouraged to continue taking art classes, she graduated as a comprehensive art major. After teaching art for seventeen years, she was assigned to be a one-year replacement for a building principal who was being released. That one year turned into eleven years. With a full time job and three children, life was too busy for Rebecca to make her own art. An artist friend encouraged her saying, “Art waits for you”.

 

During her tenure as principal, she started a lunch time digital camera club with students who assisted her with the monthly school newsletter. This led to a teacher asking her to photograph a wedding, which in turn led to a ten-year retirement photography business which included being a Preferred Wedding Photographer for Eagle Ridge Resort & Spa in Galena, Illinois.

 

The photography ended with Covid in 2019. During this isolation Rebecca took on-line classes and fell in love with collage and encaustic art. Three years later, her husband wanted to winter in Florida, but she didn’t want to leave her home studio. He encouraged her to find something she could do in Florida. She found Clay More Ceramics in Naples which rekindled her love of clay.

 

When Rebecca retired, she was asked to give a speech for the graduating students. She shared that she had never had clear goals in her entire life. However, she’d been successful because she had been flexible, willing to take risks, and did not “fake it until you make it”. She’d found that by being honest, willing to admit that you don’t know everything, listening to others, and mostly understanding that there is always a lot to learn, you can achieve happiness and success.

 

Rebecca shows her encaustic, collage, and ceramic art in various galleries throughout the Chicago area, has collectors that aren’t even related to her, has sold internationally, and is on the board of CAVA (Chicago Alliance of Visual Artists) as well as the Elmhurst Artists’ Guild. She loves being active, learning from others, spending time with her eight grandchildren, and is so glad that art waited for her!