Early years

Rebecca was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...

 and spent most of her childhood in Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson and Roane counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of Knoxville. Oak Ridge's population was 27,387 at the 2000 census...

 as one of three children of Elizabeth and Arthur Upton. Her mother was a painter and her father spent his professional life working as a scientist who would later chair the National Cancer Institute

National Cancer Institute

The National Cancer Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health , which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S...

.

As a child, Rebecca developed an affinity for animals and nature. During the summers spent at a cottage at Watts Bar Lake, she and her brother and sister would spent hours outdoors, playing and hiking, mimicking the calls of mourning doves and bobwhite quail, catching snakes, and living the life of Huckleberry Finn

Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic Mark Twain novel.Huckleberry Finn may also refer to:*Huckleberry Finn , a fictional character in the Adventures of Tom Sawyer...

. Rebecca’s parents also ensured that she had a well-balanced upbringing, exposing her to the opera and taking her to the great art museums of the East Coast and shows at the Boston Symphony.

As a teenager, Rebecca attended boarding school in Lowell, Maryland at Rogers Hall School. One day, Rebecca asked her art teacher if she had the skills to follow her passion and become an artist. “She told me that neither my talent nor my skills were good enough and to major in something else.”

She graduated from New York’s Adelphi University

Adelphi University

Adelphi University is a private, nonsectarian university located in Garden City, in Nassau County, New York, United States. It is the oldest institution of higher education on Long Island. For the sixth year, Adelphi University has been named a “Best Buy” in higher education by the Fiske Guide to...

 in 1972 with a master’s degree in theater arts. One of Rebecca’s first jobs after graduate school was designing classroom learning environments for a United States Department of Education Training Institute on Long Island, New York.

Santa Fe

During September 1975, Rebecca visited Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...

 to attend Fiesta. She felt and instant connection to the city, saying, "It was as if I had finally ‘come home.’" She returned to New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, broke her lease, quit her job and moved to Santa Fe by December. In 1976, Rebecca married her college sweetheart Denny Olmstead. They had two daughters before divorcing in 1983.

In 1984, Rebecca met sculptor Gene Tobey while working as a director of a Santa Fe art gallery that featured Gene’s raku pottery. The following year, the couple opened Gallery Five in Santa Fe’s Springer Plaza, but poor sales prompted them to close the business after just three months. Following their marriage in 1985, Rebecca and Gene began developing brightly colored ceramic sculptures, which had evolved from dishes and practical ceramics to stylized animals. Rebecca did the glazing, imbuing the sculptures with color before the final firing.

Over time, she developed her own techniques and ideas about the kind of surfaces to enhance the three-dimensional qualities of the sculptures. By 1987, Gene decided that Rebecca’s contribution to the work deserved its own recognition, and the Tobey collaboration was officially born.

Partners in art

Over the years, Tobey sculptures were typically characterized by a spiritual intensity and a style that was both sophisticated and primal. The work appeared as sleek silhouettes from afar, but when viewed up close revealed a maze if glyphs and symbols. The sgraffito drawings often portrayed other animals, mountain ranges, human figures, symbols and geometric shapes.

Both Rebecca and Gene admired aboriginal art and tribal art from South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

 and Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

. "A lot of our imagery has to do with ‘the West’ and its wildness and freedom," says Rebecca. "We find that, as we are, many people are fascinated by the West and what it represents—from the days of the Anasazi to those of the cowboy and Indians to pioneer days, ranching and cattle drives—a different way of life."

Tobeys’ sculpture was commissioned for public and private collections in the United States and internationally. Among their most popular works was the six-foot-tall bronze grizzly bear named Pathfinder. In 1994, the work was placed at Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado

Gunnison, Colorado

The historic City of Gunnison, a Home Rule Municipality, is the county seat and the most populous city of Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 5,854. It was named in honor of John W...

, where students created a custom of kissing the bear for good luck during exams.

In 2000, the Tobeys contributed to Baylor University

Baylor University

Baylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...

 a monumental 15-foot-tall bear named Spirit Walker, which has drawings on its surface depicting the history of Waco, Texas

Waco, Texas

Waco is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas. Situated along the Brazos River and on the I-35 corridor, halfway between Dallas and Austin, it is the economic, cultural, and academic center of the 'Heart of Texas' region....

, where Baylor is located.

Gene died in 2006, following complications with leukemia

Leukemia

Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...

. In the months following Gene's death, Rebecca dedicated a six-foot-tall bronze grizzly bear to the University of New Mexico

University of New Mexico

The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...

 Cancer Center.

Rebecca currently shows at several galleries in the western United States.

External links

• Tobey Studios