My name is Christina Vagenius. I am a papercut artist living on the shores of Lake Michigan with my husband and three smallish boys.

I have been making art for as long as I can remember. The first shadowbox I ever created was made from a recycled WindSong perfume box my mom gave me almost thirty years ago. I filled it with all of my drawings, ideas for children's books and written stories of a magical rabbit and all of her friends. If I could find it today, I am sure it would still smell like WindSong!

Being a self taught artist means I never went to school. In fact, I've never even taken a class. This always made me feel like maybe I wasn't a real artist. But somewhere, somehow, I found my artist legs and have been creating ever since. Fist pump self-taughts! Keep exploring!

My art exploration began with glass mosaics, as I have always been intrigued by the use of many pieces to create a whole. After the birth of my first child, I soon realized that glass mosaics was a limited medium with little ones crawling around. This led me to my current medium of cut paper. I use old books and journals to create three dimensional shadowbox art and illustration. I enjoy the process of story, the continuing journey of piecing word with picture. My first children's book, The Gift, was a way for me to learn the art of creating children's books. It took almost two years to create and to my great surprise, it went on to win four national book awards!

You can view a video of the creation of a shadowbox at:
http://vimeo.com/81621253

I am a lover of nature and am continually inspired by the wonder of seeing the world through the eyes of my children. You can find me most days throwing a tennis ball for our yellow lab, Scout, teaching art to children in our home studio or taking photographs in our surrounding woods, searching for the tail end of my next story.