Rebecca Lansdowne-Collins. Courtesy photo by Dan Collins.
Casa Linda artist Rebecca Lansdowne-Collins passed away from metastatic breast cancer on Sept. 28. She was 64 years old.
Lansdowne-Collins was a mixed media artist and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Texas. She specialized in pet portraits through Art Paw, which she founded in 1998, as well as glass mosaics and paper collages. And she taught art at her home studio and at the Creative Arts Center of Dallas.
“My goal is to create a work of art that is a celebration of love and a lasting tribute to the special bond we all share with our animals,” reads her statement on artpaw.com. At the time of her passing, she and her husband Dan Collins shared two Scottish terriers and a miniature Irish wolfhound — BB, Mille and Higgins.
Lansdowne-Collins’s website also shows a fascination with monsters, cells and “critters” (like fish, birds and insects) in her work. She had a “playful approach” to mixing mediums, including using technology to create art, according to the Q&A she did with CanvasRebel in 2022.
“I go back and forth combining traditional techniques with modern technology, and my best works explore man’s relationship with nature and our impact on nature,” she said in that interview. “I am a constant maker of things, and my hands have to be busy, but I am most proud of my works that delve a bit deeper into our place on this planet.”
Lansdowne-Collins was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in 2015, Collins said. She believed the cellular art she did was her most important work, and she connected that with her illness, in which cells grow out of control. She kept a sketchbook documenting her treatment and depicted the cells in vibrant colors alongside portraits of herself and others, oftentimes wearing masks.
Announcing her death, her husband wrote about her on Facebook, how she embraced creation and life, and how she inspired him personally.
“Cancer may have been her greatest challenge, but it never defined her,” Collins wrote. “You will not hear me say, ‘She lost her long battle with stage 4 breast cancer.’ No, she won. She beat the odds. She rang the bell. She stayed on the bull until well after the horn sounded. She went the distance. She went the extra mile and more. And she did it with joy. She inspired. She counseled. She helped so many women in similar circumstances. She led by example. She made art. She was art. She was fearless. She taught me day after day how to live and how to love; lessons so deep I may never exhaust their ability to help me be a better man.”
Collins posted on Facebook that a celebration of life show is planned for late December (and to be hosted by Art on Main’s Andrea Lamarsaude) with a memorial reception 6-9 p.m. Jan. 4.
