Meet Bill Rebholz | Artist/Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bill Rebholz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bill, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I always wanted to work for myself. Especially being in the business of artwork, it only seems right to be the head honcho of your own ideas. Also, having a chain of managers never quite sat right with me. It was alluring to be able to create my own daily structure, or lack thereof, however I wanted.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
In 2008 I started to teach myself how to do brush lettering out of a fascination with letterforms and signage. I liked the commonality of both, they are something everyone can relate to, there for communicating with. Sign painting felt like the decoration of the simple ideas the letters were portraying. And as a trade, it lived somewhere in the ether of craft and folk art, kind of where my understanding of making artwork exists.

Over the years, as an aside to doing illustration, I’ve worked in sign and graphics painting.
Working as an illustrator can be insular at times, so it’s been important to always maintain some sort of applied painting practice. In part because of the mental challenges and. practical skills it requires but also because of the different environments it sets you in. Setting out into the world always brings up the minutiae I peddle in.

Now all of these disparate ideas and skills have kind of coalesced. The same way you might find the patterns of a letter, I apply to the character of the things I draw. I may make a painting the same way I’d paint a sign. It’s a practice of harmony.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m new here so I’m still figuring this out myself. But a few things I’ve enjoyed doing so far have been looking at the intense volume of stuffs at the various flea markets (Long Beach in particular), swimming at the beaches up and down Malibu, climbing at Texas Canyon and perhaps considered out of the ordinary here, but walking the different areas of city.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Working at my neighborhood grocery store for years as a teenager, riding public transportation and my bicycle ( not getting my drivers license until I was 25) and painting in public spaces for the direct exposure to humanity it has provided. To all my friends near and far who gas me up or withhold their praise. And to all the people who have sought out my visions for their own ends.

Website: www.billrebholz.com

Instagram: @billrebholz