Rebecca Campbell was born and raised in Salt Lake City in 1970, the youngest of seven children in a strict Mormon family. By age twelve, Campbell had begun to develop a critical eye, questioning the parameters of the church and the role it ascribed to her gender. This led to her departure from the church. Campbell did not bow to pressure to conform to the societal norms, but instead spent her teenage years developing her passion to make her art, which included sculpture and installation, as well as painting and drawing. Campbell left Utah to study at Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, Oregon, receiving her B.F.A. in 1994.
About her work, Rebecca Campbell says:
All of my work comes from a very personal place but I think it’s important to leave room for people to imagine their own stories too. When I paint someone I don’t think of it as a portrait. I think of it as a symbolic painting of “a girl”, or “a woman”. I think this creates openness in the work that allows it to transcend a specific time and place. I’m also interested in showing dreamlike states. For me dream states are symbolic of the inward reflection that makes all creative acts possible.