Rebecca Sira

I work across paint, pixels, photographs, fabric, wax, and clay, with line as the constant - the same mark, whether it's drawn in pencil, stitched as a seam, or cut as a score.. My name, Rebecca, translates roughly to "a cord that binds," which fits: line is where a piece ends and another begins, and it's also the connection between them.

My work moves between scales just as often as it moves between materials: large public installations and small private pieces. The small work is intentionally intimate - each piece is a glimpse into another space or world, meant to be held close rather than viewed from across a room. Two installations, The Act of Stillness and Untangled, taught me the most about what shared experience does: strangers slowing down to respond to the same thing at the same time, and finding common ground in it. I think that's what art does best, whether it lasts a day or fifty years, or fits in a hand or fills a room.

I don't treat any of this as a finished practice. Each medium leaves something behind that shows up in the next - a mark, a technique, a way of seeing.

Therapeutic Arts Facilitator, Youhjung Song, New York, NY
Clackamas Community College, Oregon City, OR — Technical Drafting
Portland Community College, Portland, OR — Digital Arts Certification
Portland Children's Museum, Portland, OR — Artist as Educator Certification
Smith College, Northampton, MA — B.A., Fine Art
Glassell School of Art, Houston, TX
University of Texas Medical School, Houston, TX — Graphic Design Department

2023, Technology and Humanity Canvas (installation), Vernissage at Kanvas, Dubai, UAE
2023, Inclusiverse, 0x17 Gallery, Seaport, New York, NY
2023, Signal (installation), Pickathon, Happy Valley, OR
2019, Signal (installation), Portland Winter Lights Festival, Portland, OR
2018, Northwest Deaf Arts Festival
2015, The Act of Stillness, Untangled (installations), TEDActive, Whistler, Canada
2015, The Act of Stillness (installation), TEDxMtHood, Portland, OR
2014, Beyond the Story, Hillsboro Public Library, Hillsboro, OR
2013-2014, Untangled (installation), Portland International Airport, Concourse E
2013, Untangled (installation), TEDxConcordiaUPortland, Portland, OR
2012, Spiral (installation), 23rd Cascade AIDS Project, Portland, OR
2012, Come to Your Senses, Portland Center for the Performing Arts, Portland, OR
2011, 22nd Annual Art Evening and Auction, Cascade AIDS Project, Portland, OR
2010, Wild Arts Festival, Audubon Society of Portland, Portland, OR
2010, Gifted, Littman Gallery, PSU, Portland, OR
2010, Select Works, Graeter Art, Portland, OR
2010, Luminous Layers, Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts, Lake Oswego, OR
2010, Cooley House Art Show, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR
2010, Rainy Day Wildfire, Portland City Art ...