ABOUT

Hello! I like to describe myself as a visual artist, crafty generalist, and dance enthusiast. I'm a former...well, lots of things - full-time Etsy seller turned arts administrator for most of the past decade-plus since receiving my MFA in 2008. After my Etsy biz fizzled in 2013, I returned to the world of arts administration in art & design higher education, a job I quit in August 2017, after 2 1/2 years, to reboot my studio practice and spend more time with my kids. I created a podcast about/for fellow "artists in offices" that you can listen to here and wherever you get your podcasts (subscribe on iTunes here). In September 2019, I returned to work part-time, transitioning to a full-time day gig in early 2021 (not gonna lie: part-time was the ideal work-art-life balance).

I have a studio art background and over 20 years of professional experience in arts education, non-profit administration, project/program management, and visual communication. I was born on Guam and spent my childhood in California, Iowa, Nevada, Virginia, Germany, and England, eventually landing in Bend, Oregon. After one year, three jobs, one drawing class, and one snow-related fender bender, I hitched the smallest U-Haul trailer to my Ford Escort and moved again, this time south to the San Francisco Bay Area. I eventually transferred to UC Berkeley where I changed my major from pre-Vet to Art Practice & French. Between college and grad school I worked as an administrator for two non-profit arts organizations in the Bay Area. During grad school, I stopped painting, started screenprinting, and became increasingly interested in creating occasionally interactive installations that include both hand-made elements and digital media. You can see my creative work here.

Aside from a four-year detour to attend grad school in Boston, I've lived in five apartments and one house in Oakland, California since 1998. From 2010-18 I was sole proprietor of Color Bird Studio, a design boutique specializing in handmade wedding invitations and other paper crafts (I've written about my Etsy efforts on here...a lot). When not working at my day job or tending to my two kids, I try to make stuff in my backyard studio. One of these days, I'd like to record a second season of the podcast, recording interviews with working artists who are also parents. How do you juggle a robust creative practice + day job + kid(s)?

And yes, Bird is really my middle name. So as not to be confused with this gal (or this one, for that matter) when I got married I dropped my original middle name, Ann, shifted my maiden name Bird over one spot, and took my husband's last name. Rebecca Bird Grigsby. Like Lady Bird Johnson.

Questions? Email me at becky {at} rebeccabirdgrigsby {dot} com.