The sculpture of Rebecca Childers Caleel springs from many interests and inspirations. Life-long fascinations with Old World cultures (especially Native American, Mayan, and Egyptian) have a profound influence on the artist’s renderings of human form. She often collaborates with her brother, R. Wayne Childers, an archaeologist, author, and authority on Spanish Colonial Florida, and uses themes of Native American art and designs from the Florida gulf coast to give unique life to many of these contemporary pieces.

Rebecca has worked with designers to contribute art to airports, churches, hospitals, as well as her many private and corporate commissions. The Oak Brook Women's Club selected a gift of original sculpture by Rebecca, "Lincoln and Son," for the Oak Brook Public Library (Oak Brook, Illinois), presented in June 2004. This sculpture is one of the works submitted for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (Springfield, IL), and is modeled after a photograph taken by Matthew Brady in 1864 of Lincoln reading to his son, Tad.

Additionally, The City of Ottawa, Illinois, through a grant from the State of Illinois, commissioned two heroic-sized sculptures to commemorate the first Lincoln – Douglas Debate, unveiled on September 14, 2002. For this project, Rebecca used a replica made from Lincoln's life mask and a cast of his hands made by sculptor Leonard Wells Volk in 1860. 

Maquettes of the Ottawa sculpture are used as illustrations in the chapter “Lincoln in Modern Art,” by Harold Holzer, Vice President for Communications at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Lincoln Enigma: The Changing Faces of an American Icon, edited by Garbor Boritt). Photographs of Rebecca's work illustrate the new book by Dr. Wayne C. Temple, Director of the Illinois State Archives and an internationally known authority on Abraham Lincoln. Her Ottawa Lincoln is featured on the cover of Dr. Temple's "The Taste Is In My Mouth A Little . . . " (Mahomet, IL: Mayhaven Publishing, 2004). To read more about Rebecca's work on this commission, visit the publications page.

In 2002 and 2003, Rebecca was one of three sculptors chosen by the State of Illinois to submit a maquette design for the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (Springfield, IL).

In July 2000, the Chicago Opera Theatre presented the production "Akhnaten," by Philip Glass. Rebecca was chosen to exhibit her Egyptian sculptures including the bas relief of the Pharoah Akhenaten. Concurrently, the Art Institute of Chicago's exhibit "Pharaohs of the Sun" included a sculpture of Akhenaten.

Rebecca Childers Caleel is a native of Port St. Joe, Florida, and is a graduate of Florida State University. Her studio is located in Westmont, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. She has studied extensively for over twenty years with the former National Sculptor of Egypt, Mustafa Naguib, and with the world-renowned forensic sculptor, Betty Gatiliff, and also in France and Italy, as well as at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.