Lexi Vangsnes
Lexi Vangsnes is an American illustrator and writer based in France since 2012. Born and raised in rural Virginia, she grew up poring over books of traditional fairy and folk tales, recruiting her neighborhood friends for elaborate theatrical productions, and inventing stories of enchanted kingdoms set within the landscape of the Blue Ridge mountains that surrounded her home. Those early memories continue to influence her work today, which often revolves around fantasy, spectacle, a sense of place, and magic suffusing the everyday.
Her deep love of books led her to work in bookstores and libraries, where she rekindled her love of picture books. Self-taught as an illustrator, she has developed a style that combines a wide variety of media, from pastels and watercolor to collage, highlighter, and rubber stamps. Working traditionally, she loves getting her hands dirty and infusing her work with spontaneity, texture, and a handmade touch.
When not working on picture book projects, she is a bit of a serial hobbyist, trying her hand at everything from lead typesetting to paper marbling to making dollhouse furniture and papier-mâché puppets. A lover of all things camp, she collects Staffordshire pottery (the uglier the better) and believes Eurovision weekend should be a pan-European public holiday.
