Joyce Rebora

Joyce Kuhlmann Rebora, Artist and Mom

Joyce Rebora, a talented Chicago artist and beloved mother and grandmother, died peacefully on Jan. 4, 2025. She was surrounded by her family and friends in her last days. She was 88 years old.

Joyce was born in Evanston, Ill., in 1936. She was the younger of two daughters raised by Jack and Dorothy Kuhlmann, both of whom worked for the Chicago Tribune. Joyce attended St. Athanasius Elementary School and Marywood High School in Evanston. A talented and inquisitive drawer from an early age, she received a BA in fine arts from Mundelein College in 1958.

That same year, she married Stephen R. Rebora, a Notre Dame graduate and U.S. Navy officer who would soon become a Chicago businessman. Together the handsome and congenial couple raised five children in the Sauganash neighborhood on the North side of Chicago, where they were members of the Queen of All Saints parish. Joyce was a caring and inspired mom who often marched to the beat of her own drum. She was fun-loving, dreamy, and inventive. She enthusiastically supported her kids in their diverse (and sometimes arcane) interests and, both by example and instruction, encouraged them to become their own people and pursue their own distinct paths in life.

Even as she was raising her large family, Joyce developed into a serious and accomplished artist. While her kids were at school, she painted every day in the garage that Steve had converted into a studio for her. An impressive array of pieces-moody self-portraits, meticulous still lifes, puffy abstractions, and quirky sculptures of houses and angels-streamed from the garage and soon began to attract attention. Starting in the late 1970s, Joyce began showing her work in galleries and exhibitions throughout the Chicago area. She was a founding member of the women's cooperative ARC gallery, and regularly showed her work at the Joy Horwich Gallery and Wood Street Gallery. In recent years, her work was represented by the Vale Craft Gallery in River North. Marked by an expert yet loosely held craftsmanship, Joyce's paintings and sculptures were by turns whimsical, plaintive, and darkly exploratory-but always maintained a signature quality of playful affection and curiosity. They have sold widely.

When she was in her 50s, Joyce returned to school and earned a master's degree in interdisciplinary arts from Columbia College in Chicago. She subsequently taught art at Columbia, North Park College, and the Evanston Art Center among other institutions.

Outside of making art, Joyce loved to read, listen to music (everything from Mozart to Johnny Cash), and watch movies and plays. She enjoyed cooking, hosting parties, laughing, arguing, and engaging with folks from all walks of life. She liked to connect people and explore new things, and she paid little heed to social barriers. She also adored and admired her growing brood of grandchildren, who she loved to make things with and whose talents and interests she followed closely. She and Steve spent many weekends and summers in their family home on Diamond Lake in Cassopolis, Mich., where she kept a small studio filled with natural materials she gathered on her walks-bird's nests, small animal skulls, insects, and dried flowers. She loved to swim.



Joyce was always happiest in her studio or sitting at her kitchen table in the mornings, drawing in her sketchbook-a ritual that she often transferred to the front porch of the beloved house in Chicago's Lakeview area where she and Steve moved in the late-1990s. In later years, she and Steve, who took up woodworking in retirement, often showed their work together. Their basement studio in Lakeview became a homey wonderland of arts and crafts materials and works in progress (including many by their grandchildren). It was a center of family life. Joyce and Steve were married for 58 years, until Steve's death in 2017.

Joyce was also preceded in death by her dear son Mark, her daughter Susan (who died in infancy), and her son-in-law Michael Barratt. In addition to Mark's wife Christine, she is survived by four children and their partners: Carrie Rebora Barratt (and Jason Amis) of New York; Ellen (and José) Urquiaga of Evanston; Steve (and Kerry) Rebora of Chicago; and Anthony (and Theresa) Rebora of Washington, D.C. She is also survived by 11 grandchildren, to whom she was affectionately known as "Gramma Pencil." She was great-grandmother to two, with a third on the way.

In lieu of flowers or direct contributions, the family is encouraging donations in Joyce Rebora's memory to Evanston Made, a nonprofit that supports local artists and arts programming. Visit: https://evanstonmade.org/donate.

The family would also love to hear from you at Reboras1918@gmail.com or by mail to Joyce's home address. A service in the spring will celebrate her remarkable life.