About The Artist

Hi I’m Dixie Rebel. I operate under this signature nickname given to me many moons ago by my daughters whom I love very much. I’m from Texas but I’ve recently opened a home studio in Florida surrounded by nature’s inspiration and the beauty of God’s creations.

I’m what many people would call a highly sensitive person. I feel things deeply. For years, that felt like a burden. Today I see it differently. The same heart that made life feel overwhelming also allows me to notice beauty, emotion, and hope in places that are easy to overlook. Those are the things I try to capture on every canvas.

If you had told me ten years ago that I would one day be an artist, I would have laughed. That wasn’t the plan.
I was a pharmacist. I had built a career that took years of education, sacrifice, and hard work. Then a bout with PTSD and addiction unraveled everything I thought my life was supposed to become. It all started with a prescription. I lost the career I loved, and for a long time I believed I had lost myself.

Of all the places I could’ve ended up, I landed myself bartending, while quietly rebuilding a life I wasn’t sure would ever make sense again. Being in hospitality while getting sober taught me humility, surrender, and strength. Ultimately it reminded me who the heck I am. If I can make it through pharmacy school, if I can get sober while running a bar, I can do anything I set my mind to, with God’s help.

I discovered that art is everywhere. Bartending is art in a glass. I love being a part of memorable experiences that bring people together and that has helped keep me sober. We are each our own canvas as well and every brush of life, every memory, the mistakes, the successes, and every experience with the people we encounter is a stroke of a complicated masterpiece.

I started painting with acrylics during the shutdown in 2020 when I, like many others, was brought to a place of stillness. It needed to happen for me.
Something happened when I picked up that paint. I realized that I have a gift that trades ashes for beauty. I began on a journey to a place where grief could breathe, where hope could grow, and where I could begin to believe that broken things really can become beautiful again.

My art is inspired to uplift the Spirit because I know how it feels to hurt, to have a broken spirit. Pain is art in raw form. Yet ironically, art is medicine. I’ve found a way to practice medicine without the use of pharmaceuticals.
I want people to feel lighter when they look at my work. I want someone who’s carrying grief to remember that joy still exists. I want someone who’s exhausted to take one deep breath and feel peace. I want someone who thinks they’ve ruined their life to believe that new beginnings are still possible.

Today, I’m 8 years in recovery and I’ve found myself standing at the edge of the unknown, once again. So I decided to set up a studio and go all in. God’s been telling me to do it for a long time. A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. We find our purpose in the problems. There will be giants, but there’s treasure in these trials.

I’ve put together some pieces to share as I trudge the road of happy destiny. There will be much more to come.

Thank you for being here. I truly believe God wastes nothing.
Not our failures.
Not our heartbreak.
Not our detours.
Every part of our story can become something beautiful in His hands.

Long live the misfits. The rebels. The dreamers. The artists. The outcasts. The old souls. The truth seekers. The greatest calling comes with the longest, hardest battles – and through it, we learn to fight the good fight with our gifts.

My goal is that when you leave here, whether you own one of my pieces or simply spent a few moments looking at them, that you leave feeling uplifted. There’s a stroke of victory in every one of them.