This is me.
My name is Christina Vagenius. I am a self-taught artist and writer living on the shores of Lake Michigan with my husband, 3 cats and sweet lab, Mabel Mae. I use old books and journals to create shadowbox art and illustration, transforming found objects into collage, exploring the dance between picture and words. I am a mother of 3 grown boys with a heart full of memories of their painted youth. I labor over stories, both new and old, find a quiet magic in the unfolding of a character's resurrected heart. You can find me most days snuggled beside a cat, reworking a sentence or teaching yoga and meditation, witnessing the poetry of life exhaled one breath at a time.  

You can find more of my work on my blog, Heart Box Studio.

Paper & Scissors

My medium is a unique combination of papercut and three dimensional illustration incorporating both journal and collected vintage book pages to create stories within stories. Each page from these collected books is chosen for its content and word placement, handpainted, cut and assembled, giving each piece of illustration a depth of story and interior voice.

Bird Girl: A Short Film

The Making of a Shadowbox