Rebecca grew up in Zambia and Kenya and moved to the United States at the age of fifteen. Always an avid drawer, her first attempts at art were portrayals of the African landscape and culture around her. In addition to painting, Rebecca also creates illustrations for children’s books. After graduating with a major in art and a concentration in painting, she worked at an illustration studio in Chicago for several years where she gained first hand experience in the publishing industry. It was there that she began her career as an illustrator. Currently, Rebecca divides her artistic pursuits between working as a painter’s studio assistant and as a freelance illustrator for children’s books.

Gisele Nelson: Rebecca, you grew up the majority of your teen years in Zambia.  What were some specific ways that your time living there shaped your creativity?

Rebecca Peed:  The only TV station that aired in Zambia during the fifteen years that I lived there came on at 5 p.m. and ended at about 11 pm. If my siblings and I were allowed to watch anything when we were little, it was the half hour of cartoons that occasionally came on at 5 pm.  The pace of life was also very different and very simple. Living in an unembellished,quiet environment with limited technological options forced me into the exploration of a creative lifestyle. My siblings, friends, and I would spend hours making our own toys, inventing up costumes for plays, and making up our own games. I also remember filling my time with lots of reading, writing, drawing, and acting out skits in the tree house. I believe that my home school education during those years further added to the nurturing of an active imagination, since the learning was very hands on and alternative, as well.

Gisele:  What role did community play in those years in Zambia in relation to your art?

Rebecca: My parents’ colleagues in Zambia were like aunts and uncles to me and their kids were like my cousins, so to grow up in that kind of nurturing atmosphere was very encouraging. My immediate family was always very supportive of my desire to draw and paint. Additionally, I felt the encouragement and interest in my art from my “aunts” and “uncles.” However, since the area I grew up in was somewhat isolating from a lot of other kids and because I didn’t go to a regular school, my formative years were spent drawing and making art on my own in long, uninterrupted periods of time. I actually think this solitude in the creative process helped me to explore my imagination more and get really comfortable with it. It wasn’t until I went to boarding school in Kenya that I started having formal art classes.

Gisele:  You are now apart of a unique community of artists.  Will you describe your community and what you guys are all about?

Rebecca: Every week a group of artists meet to discuss their art and inspirations, work on art projects together, or simply gather for the benefit of creative dialogue.  Mat and Geinene Carson, two artists living in downtown Atlanta, started these intentional gatherings to inspire “community, creativity, and collaboration.” It’s been very encouraging to me to be a part of this kind of artist community where I learn from other artists about their work or modes of inspiration.

Gisele:  How would your life change if you were no longer able to create art?

Rebecca: In some ways, it would be so much easier. It can be a struggle to pursue the thing that, on the one hand, brings you so much fulfillment but, on the other hand, also produces so much turmoil in you. There are some days when I wonder if the weight of it is too much, but then I remember that inexplicable feeling that rises up in me and must somehow be let out. To me, the risk of stifling that creative urge and sensitivity to truth and beauty is greater than the risk of pursuing a life in the arts. If I were no longer able to create art, my life would lack that rush that the joy of communicating those feelings through art brings to me.

Gisele:  To you, what makes an artist an artist?

Rebecca: I believe an artist is someone who can express a vision for an unnamed, hidden thing in them that must get out into the world. It’s having the sensitivity to feel or see things around them or in themselves that they then have the capacity to share with others in a tangible, relatable form. It’s someone who brings vision into being through creating.