Becca is an award-winning surface embroidery artist living in Tucson, Arizona.
Becca makes still lifes and original illustrations using an embroidery style known as “thread painting.”
Honoring her love of folk fiber handicrafts, Becca’s painterly use of thread imbues her portraits, still life compositions, and original drawings with whimsical texture and soul. Her pieces delight in cherished things and memories, whether it be a collection of unique items, candid phone photos, or found treasures from childhood.
An artist since childhood, Becca’s youth was also filled with accomplishments in sports and music. She studied psychology at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, where she also played on the varsity golf team, learned Mandarin, performed in theater productions, managed the school radio station, and studied abroad in Sweden. In every place she explored, Becca loved to take in the art, culture, and architecture of the location, and found ways to develop creatively.
After graduation and a stint coaching NCAA golf in Laredo, Texas, Becca turned her focus to fulfilling her childhood dream of being a full-time artist in 2022. She began with commissioned works in a multitude of mediums, such as digital art, toy design, knit and crochet, and painting.
Her interest in needlecraft started as a hobby during the COVID pandemic of 2020. She began to play with the craft, leaning upon skills developed with other mediums. As she did, it quickly became her specialty, winning top awards at her very first nation-wide needlework show.
In 2023, Becca began building a series of highly detailed studies of her souvenir thimble collection, painted entirely in thread. This project has become a retrospective, inviting viewers to be curious about how the items in childhood environments shape adult identities, as well as an exploration of the self and tourism. It culminated in her first solo show at Radford University’s museum of art in the fall of 2025.
She is a newly minted Tucsonan, and works out of her home studio. When not creating art, Becca is never without her sketch pad for doodling the things around her.
Artist’s Statement
My work explores the meaning I find in the things I collected as a child and the relationships we form with our collections. Using thread to “paint” my subjects is my favorite medium, ultimately because it feels good to make embroidery art. I want that peaceful sense of wellness to come through in the result. My mother is a quilter, so I grew up exposed to the tools of needlework and the joy it can bring. I am excited to push my limits with the medium. My inspiration comes from pop realism artists such as CJ Hendry, ink artists such as Iona Pioaru, and painters such as Golsa Golchini, who all make magic in their mediums.