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Inevitably when you take a trip like the one I took this year to Mexico, the Azores, Portugal and Spain, you return home to a lot of questions from family and friends: "How was your trip?! It looked amazing! What's next?" Of course there is always the polite response: "It was amazing! I loved it! How was your summer?!" And if you're with friends at dinner there might be time for a story or two - about the island in Portugal where I slept in a castle with no electricity or the day I hiked the Rio Chillar in Spain.
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But rarely is there time for anything more thorough than that. Life marches on. The bill comes. There's work tomorrow.
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I had visions of projects I thought I might accomplish while traveling - write a book, paint a collection, blog everyday. But none of those things happened. Instead I spent most of my time navigating, talking to people, seeing the sights, and meeting my basic needs like food, water, shelter. And walking, lots and lots of walking.
 But in my backpack was a notebook and a tiny paint set small enough to rest on my lap or hold in my hand. For the first time in a long time, I painted just to paint. Just for me. Just to record what was before me. Not for a collection, client or show. Just for me.
Painting is still the best magic trick I know.
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I came back with a stack of little paintings and thousands of photos on my iPhone. I put the pictures in albums and got down to the business of reflecting on my journey. Taking stock of how I feel and what I learned from such an adventure.
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I feel like a new person.
I feel like a new person in the way you only can when you feel like yourself again.
 When you do something that strips away the layers of "persona" you've been trying on one on top of the other for years. Through my travels and on either side of them, new friends and old friends held a mirror to me that could see into the past - one that reminded me how funny I used to be, how genuine and sensitive, how willing to share. I remembered what freedom lies in feeling loved. You can be goofy, animated, strong and generous when you feel that invisible net in the world. When you don't, it makes you defensive, closed, scared and selfishly small. |
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Something as simple as being in another country and needing people to speak your language or tell you how to find something can be incredibly humbling, and an exercise in being a decent human.
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When I wrote last, before my big trip, a terrible theatre shooting had just happened in Louisiana. And now, at the forefront of our minds is the tragic attacks on Paris just days ago. I wrote then of wanting to be a "Warrior for Good." A person who shines a light into the darkness. Something I've realized is that, to do that
I have to be brave enough to shine a light into my own darkness.
I have to be a "Warrior for Myself."
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I want to thank the countless people who wrote to me during my travels. Your words buoyed me on a journey of Self Re-Discovery. Your words were powerful LIGHTS that shown into my darkness. Lights that refused to let me suffer or waver or question my own strength. In my last newsletter I confessed that "I don't know how to live this life" just before closing my studio and setting out for the unknown. What this experience has shown me is that we are thirsty for bravery. For everyday heroes and fierce friends. We are desperate to starve the fear-monster hiding under the bed. I am so grateful for you who followed along, cheering me on.
I admit that in the past I thought: "Who am I to be a leader?" I feel too exposed, too fragile, too poor, too scared, too unformed and un-informed... Still growing and learning, still catching up on my required summer reading. I'm still patching the holes of inadequacy inside me. I'm still carefully mending a broken heart. I still spend entire months and years of my life running in the wrong directions, backwards toward some familiar salve to soothe a pain at times I'm convinced separates me from my fellow man.
So, who am I to carry the torch? Of one of the oldest professions in one of the most unstable and mysterious landscapes we have ever known?
I am you.
I am desperate for heroes, for Warriors for Good - who shine a light into MY darkness. And I want to be better. Not better than my fellow man, but better than my past self. I want to look back at "her" in the battle scene, and amid flying bullets and daggers, be the fighter that smiles, reaches out my hand, and HURLS that scared imperfect girl into the present and says: "We get out of this together."
I hope that my journey has inspired your own bravery and courage to not only live a more meaningful life, but to be the warrior for YOUR past self, one that won't let the other go down in battle.
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Since returning from my travels, I have been living a small life painting commissions in my Bywater Studio in New Orleans, and sketching for my next collection.
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I have two new Family Tree Paintings to share with you here that are now in their new homes here in New Orleans. These families have inspired me to be a stronger female voice, to fall back in love with this strange and beautiful city I call home, and to allow my own friends and family to be as awkward, acrobatic and unique as they need to be. These families have homes that feel like that invisible net - the one that lets you be goofy and brave, generous and shameless. These families are both passionate about travel in the way that reminds you of the broadness of humanity - in ways that give back and don't just take. I am grateful that they've allowed me to use my gifts to tell their story.
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I'll be painting commissions well into the new year while I also plan more travel and sketch for future collections. My next show will be announced in 2016 and I hope you'll follow along in the meantime through social media and my blog. (Be forewarned that when you subscribe to my blog you literally get an email every time I make a post, so if that's your thing, go right ahead. I'm happy to see your subscriptions and your replies which go to my inbox. I don't always get to reply to every message, but you're encouragement is beyond measure.)
If you want to see more photos from my big trip, I posted mostly to instagram and you can view those photos with #RRCaptainsLog or online here.
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I still do not have a studio open to the public. Would you be interested in purchasing prints or paintings online for the holidays? Let me know. I'll see what I can do.
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Rebecca Rebouche Stationery
I have licensed my artwork to London stationer Roger LaBorde who has used my designs on all manner of beautiful cards, journals and gift bags. I'm awaiting a list of US stockists that carry my complete collections, but in the meantime I found an online retailer that ships some of the items domestically, like this blank journal with decorative pages.
Buy it online here, along with these cute gift bags.
You can view more items on www.rogerlaborde.com
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I wish I could share more, like the time I painted my own souvenirs (above) at the Miro Museum in Barcelona, but this email has already taken me like a gajillion hours. It has been so nice catching up with you. Thank you for your virtual time which is such a big part of our lives. I hope you will feel free to reply, or stay engaged with me on social media, and EVEN in real life. I know. Crazy talk.
Your Warrior,
Rebecca
(Speaking of warrior: By request, photos of my Mad Max inspired dystopian future warrior Halloween costume are now on my blog. Sorry for oversharing, but I just really love making costumes okay? :)
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