Meet the Artist

Christen was born in Austin, Texas and grew up a 3rd generation Collier artist. Being an artist has always been just as valid a profession in the Collier family as being a doctor, teacher, or business person, and so from an early age Christen was encouraged to develop her God-given artistic hand and eye. She was blessed with talented and motivational teachers beginning in elementary school and learned not only from her father and grandfather, Carroll Collier, but also during summer classes taught by Tim and Cindy High at their home in Austin. Christen won a gold medal in the UIL Scholastic Arts State Competition her freshman year in high school and later went on to study art and design at the University of Texas at Austin. Alongside her studies, Christen ran a small business taking commissions of artwork, murals, and design work for many families and businesses across the nation including Invisible Children and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Her senior project creating a universal language system based off the human anatomy and breath was an International Semi-finalist in the Adobe Design Achievement Awards in 2008.

After graduation Christen worked as a graphic designer for Pentagram Design's Austin branch until getting married to a handsome military man and moving to Italy in 2010. While at Pentagram her work gained attention locally, being featured in events such as the Texas Book Festival, and on the national level winning awards and showing up in HOW and Graphis design publications.

While in Italy, Christen continued designing for her local church--helping to make available protestant Christian literature in catholic Italy--as well as working on publications by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis of The Crowded House, Acts 29 Western Europe and Porterbrook.