Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rebecca Rebouche. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Rebecca, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I always had a creative impulse and a natural talent for drawing. I learned painting in college and developed my personal style years later. It wasn’t until I really made art for a living that I was able to hone my particular style of visual storytelling.
There wasn’t much way to speed up the process because learning itself is a process with a key ingredient being time. I went about it in the most direct path at the beginning. Once I decided to fully commit to my practice of painting, the journey from part-time artist to full-time painter was fairly quick. You learn by doing and so it’s not about time as much as it is hours on the job. When you condense those hours into the most direct and intense approach, you get hours on the job faster. Early on I knew I didn’t want to just be a Sunday painter. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a Sunday painter, that’s a beautiful thing. But if you spend every day doing something you will get better at it a lot “faster” than only spending one day a week on the same skill.
The skills that were most essential to me are really just gravitational pulls. I’m someone who is curious. I’m undaunted. I have a soft sort of grit. I take on projects for personal reasons and see them through with tenacious resolve simply because it’s important to me. These skills served me early on and still serve me in my work.

LIFE itself is an obstacle that stood in the way of my own growth and learning. Heartbreak, money troubles, family troubles, and the obstacle of navigating day to day life without much stability. Looking back, I felt that my interpersonal trials and tribulations really stunted my growth and impeded my progress as an artist and as a professional. But it is these very struggles which were filtered through the work too. We are really simple creatures for the most part, even in our infinite complexity. We are wired for survival. Art is a survival mechanism. So is money, relationships, love and community. If your career can be the thing that gives you those things, then it’s all just life happening. Art helps me make sense of things. It is the greatest predictor of what is possible. I always say, the only work that gets done is the work that pays the bills and the work that saves your soul. Hopefully those are the same work, or they are in healthy alignment. That is what I hope for everyone.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m just a girl from South Louisiana, who grew up going to public school and doing talented art. I got a scholarship to college and studied art and graphic design. I worked as a graphic designer for a few years before switching to fine art full time. I had a natural interest in entrepreneurship so that propelled me to turn art into my career and own my own business. I make paintings that I sell online and every three years I put on a big exhibition to showcase my new collection that year. I go to great lengths to plan fabulous parties and events surrounding the exhibition and invite guests into a world of my imagination. Early on I was very lucky to have my work picked up by Anthropologie and they put my art on dishes, bedding, wallpaper, rugs, curtains, and more. This was a beautiful partnership that lasted for the better part of ten years and brought my work to a wider audience. I have done a number of other licensing collaborations and now I also sell my wallpaper murals on my website. Last year I did the scenic art for the Carolina Ballet’s production of The Little Mermaid, and this year they’ve invited me back for two productions: Alice in Wonderland (March 2025) and Swan Lake (May 2025). Creating art for this scale and in connection with ballet is such a dream come true. I love seeing the art on the stage and in concert with the dancers. It’s living art and another dimension of visual storytelling. I also have become quite well known for a commission style painting I created called The Family Tree Painting. It’s a bespoke process where I get to know a family and create a visual allegory that tells their unique story. The painting becomes a family heirloom and the experience is unlike any other art form that I know of. I have a big illustration project coming up this year that I’m very excited about and I can’t wait to see the ballets soon in Raleigh, NC. I hope to bring my work to wider audiences in the coming years through new licensing opportunities and brand partnerships that are in alignment with my vision. I love building a business that gives credence to the healing and transformative power of art and story.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Let me tell you a story. One of my biggest successes came out of one of my biggest failures. I started my career as an artist alongside a guy I loved, a fellow artist. I learned the ropes from him and got my start with his help as a companion, teacher and friend. When suddenly one Spring day, he told me he didn’t want to continue in the relationship. In one fell swoop I lost my studio space and suffered the deepest heartbreak I had ever known. But I had a show coming up. I had applied to show at Jazz Fest in New Orleans and I had a booth to fill with artwork. By all means I had to buckle down and create. On top of everything, I was also broke. Broke, broke, broke! I remember eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that whole season. I rented a room in a woman’s house that she kept for her 20 cats and used it as a makeshift studio, keeping my brown bag lunch in the kitchen fridge which I got to by tip-toeing through a sea of litter boxes. It was not my best moment. But I needed to paint, and to process my heartache. And I NEEDED to make money. At best I would survive til the fest on PB&J sandwiches and borrowed time.

Well, I painted my little heart out in that cat-studio and amassed a large collection of paintings that I called “Lay Your Burden Down.” I rented a van to transport my stuff to the fest, using the last remaining $300 credit on my credit card. And I crossed my fingers as I set up my work and hoped for a successful weekend. I desperately NEEDED to have a successful show, and that did NOT happen. I made a few sales, enough to pay back my landlord, but then it proceeded to rain cats and dogs, up to my knees, flooding my booth at the festival. I remember how laboriously I loaded all the unsold paintings back into the van on the last day, and then cried the whole way home by myself. I was screwed and I knew it. I felt unloved, unsuccessful, tired and downright depressed.

BUT, fast forward to the next day, I got a call from a friend that a company called Anthropologie was coming to town with a handful of buyers looking for fresh talent in New Orleans, and did I have any work to show? Yes, I’m serious. This is how I met Anthropologie. My friend (and client) set it up so that I could hang my paintings in her house to show the buyers from Anthro. But, to do so, I would have to EXTEND the van rental that I already couldn’t pay for. I had some really big pieces in that collection and they were some of my best work to date. So, on a wing and a prayer, I extended the van rental, shlepped all my paintings over to her house and hung them up for the meeting. And, as you already know, the rest is history. Six buyers from Anthro became my new biggest fans and 5 of them bought paintings for their personal collections right there on the spot. And I mean big ones too. Suddenly, I had the money to pay back the rent, the van, and my mother. And I had my first big client. Anthro proceeded to commission a large painting for their New Orleans store, and then the following fall we entered talks to create my first collection of dinnerware. Essentially my world was forever changed. And my failure turned into a massive success.

And here’s the kicker: IF I had had a “successful” Jazz Fest that weekend and sold out of everything I would have been “happy” in that moment, but I would have had nothing to show to the Anthropologie buyers. IF I hadn’t been heartbroken and broke, I may have never created so much powerful work that became my meal ticket to what is now a ten year relationship with the brand. IF I had been too scared to extend the van rental with money I didn’t have, I wouldn’t have shown and then sold some of my largest work and probably wouldn’t have gotten the commission for the New Orleans store.

The point is, all my failures in that instance added up to my greatest success. So even when you’re painting in a cat house and crying your broke ass heart out rejected and tired and hopeless, just know that you are being prepared for greatness in some way. It won’t happen for you in exactly the way it happened for me, but it definitely won’t happen if you decide that failure is real and that there’s some bogus day that it is decided. Failure is not real, And there is no end-date that it becomes real. End of story. Hugs.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me as an artist, the most rewarding aspects are two-fold, One is that the work itself is rewarding. It’s thrilling to create something from nothing. To create something where there was nothing. To bring something to life from your mind. This is humanity at its finest in a way. To create is a natural impulse. And I love having a skill I can rely on like a trusted friend.
The other biggest reward is the people I meet through sharing my work. My patrons, collectors, cohorts, friends, colleagues and those I admire or meet along the way. The conversations I have about the art, and the relationships we have built along the way are the saving grace of existence. They make it all worthwhile. I love connecting with people and realizing our commonalities and the dance of differences and feeling how our cells zing into alignment when we connect with someone. It’s love. Pure and simple.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Rebeccarebouche.com
• Instagram: @rebeccarebouche @rebeccarebouche.co

Image Credits

Ollie Alexander
Rebecca Rebouche