Rejoys is an internationally traveled, colorful artist and clothing designer who lives in downtown Gulfport.
Rejoys
The first thing you notice is her electric-blue hair.
The second thing you notice about the artist who goes by Rejoys [Rebecca Schlabach] is her art. She crafts earrings out of mini troll dolls, paints canvases with scenes from the subconscious, and wears her art on her sleeve.
For a chunk of the artist’s life, Rejoys lived in melting pots of the world and traveled with her art collection since she debuted as an artist in the 1980s. In 2022, she’s settled in a downtown Gulfport apartment filled wall-to-wall with canvases.
Her subject of choice? Women.
It’s always been women.
“I paint women because I am a woman. Most of them are stories of my life,” Rejoys said. “I paint what I think and what I feel and sometimes there’s other people’s stories, but most of them I’ve experienced.”
She paints herself frequently, and is pictured here at a festival with people she once knew.
Rejoys
The shades she uses for her women aren’t seen on actual women: Blue, pink, and yellow skin, with rainbow hair and Dalí-like surrealism, it’s reminiscent of a dream you can’t remember.
According to Rejoys, that’s the point, none of it is supposed to follow a linear timeline. She paints herself into a coma with a guardian angel over her, she paints herself in the ‘90s, with pink hair and shades and a bohemian dress. She paints the women that used to be her hairdresser, her neighbors, people she never met.
Often, she includes hidden images in the shadows of her paintings.
Rejoys is also known for her clothing creations. She’s often spotted wearing her own handiwork in the form of bohemian dresses stitched together and dangling earrings inspired by counterculture.
“I make art because that’s all I ever wanted to do,” Rejoys said.
The Gulfport resident was born in Michigan. She moved out of the cold young, married a military man, and moved to Hawaii before she was even 20.
Rejoys – then Rebecca – left the island in 1971 and moved home to Michigan to study massage therapy and cosmetology. From 1976 to 1983, she owned two salons in both Michigan and Colorado, but she dropped it all for a full dive into the art world.
“I loved it. I started with a line of clothing and had my first showing in Atlanta in 1986,” she said.
She lived and worked as a French Quarter artist in New Orleans, spent her winters in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, lived in Canada, showed in Manhattan, and everywhere she was invited. Murals by Rejoys are painted on Florida walls still, even though she’s given up her career as a muralist.
“You always go back home, but I quit doing that a long time ago,” Rejoys said. “I just went further into my art.”
Womanhood is a focal point of her work.
Rejoys
The ‘80s and ‘90s were huge for Rejoys.
“It was great back then. Maybe the economy was better, maybe there was more of a culture for artists, maybe there’s just more of us now,” Rejoys said.
Either way, she moved to Florida and took up residence in Gulfport 10 years ago, a place that she recognized as a “sleepy art town with a fishing problem.”
She continues to sells her work and tells her stories around Gulfport.
See more of Rejoys online at rejoysart.com.
Team Gabber brought back the print version of the newspaper, and we’ve redesigned our website to make it easier for you to get the news. We’re not out of the woods yet, and every little bit helps pay our reporters, printer, and other expenses. Support local news and families — donate now to keep The Gabber Newspaper serving the community it loves!