Kirsten grew up near a tiny town in the mountains of Northern California, building forts, attempting to leash train her chickens, and running barefoot through the woods in search of fairies. When the weather was too cold or hot to be barefoot outside, she spent countless hours reading, drawing, painting, and writing.
In college, she decided to turn her life-long passion for art into a career, and studied illustration. After graduating she became a mother, and had to put her art supplies away for a while to keep them out of reach of curious little hands and mouths! Determined to pass along her love of books, she read every day with her kids, accumulating thousands of hours of “page time.” She affectionately refers to this time as her “masters degree” in children’s literature.

In January of 2020, a New Year’s resolution led Kirsten back to art. She dusted off her art supplies, and suddenly it was as if all the years of pent up ideas wanted to come pouring out at once. The torrent hasn’t stopped yet! Recently she has re-awakened her childhood passion for writing as well, and is working on several of her own author/illustrator manuscripts. In the spring of 2024, her writing earned her a spot among the finalists in the annual PBParty contest.

Kirsten creates her artwork with watercolor, ink, colored pencil, and digital techniques. She loves distinct, expressive characters, historic settings and costumes, and birds and animals of all kinds (especially chickens!). She is drawn to anything with fantastical elements, stories with deeper meaning, as well as funny stories that make her laugh out loud. She loves children’s books for all ages, and is interested in illustrating both fiction and nonfiction picture books, as well as children’s and young adult chapter books and graphic novels.