Shirley
Wagner was born in Youngstown, Ohio. She obtained a Bachelor
of Fine Arts degree from Youngstown State University. She lived
in New York City before moving to Tucson, Arizona in 1983.
She resides with her husband and three sons in the Tucson desert,
a place of fragile beauty that provides light, space and inspiration
for her work.
She
was a Visual Arts Specialist in the public school system in
Tucson before dedicating herself full time to her wood assemblage
work. While teaching, her school received national honors and
was selected from hundreds of US schools as a model for arts
integration into the curriculum. The findings were published
in 2005 in Third Spaces: When Learning Matters, released by
the National Education Association.
In
2006 she was nominated for the Arizona Governor's Art Award,
recognizing her contribution to the arts. She has been featured
in various local publications including the Arizona Daily Star
and Tucson Lifestyle. Her work is in various private collections
throughout The United States and Germany.
