Weaving is one of the many hearts of Black American and Black Diasporic culture, expression, and struggle for Siena Smith. The warp and weft materials of her fabrics hold in tension patterns of ancestral desires, expressions, rebellions, and futures, drawing on her family's relationship to blankets, church hats, quilts, pillowcases, and clothes.

As a Black American woman, Siena works to reclaim space at the industrial Jacquard loom, a tool that historically funded slavery, to activate Black personhood, agency, passion, mourning, and resistance, engaging with materials like cotton, wool, beads, charcoal, and pastels that her family has touched. She often weaves and then draws, collages, or embellishes on the cloth, layering mediums to reflect on depths of feeling, expectation, and memory. As featured in Sotheby's "The Cultural Traditions Inspiring Four Black Artists" (Feb 2025), presented in partnership with Good Black Art.