Laura Walker Lagstrom was born in Nome, Alaska. She graduated from Covenant High School in Unalakleet and Alaska Methodist University in Anchorage. In 1996 she began taking watercolor classes and workshops and discovered that this was a wonderful way to express her love of Alaska and its people.

"I am one-half Inupiat Eskimo and was raised by Mary and Edward Walker. Our family life revolved around the subsistence hunting. fishing and gathering seasons of the year. My mother taught me many things. In the spring, we prepared the ducks and seals my father brought home; in the summer we would seine, cut and dry the salmon for the winter months. We picked blueberries, cranberries, blackberries, and salmonberries for our fruit as well as many different types of greens.  We trapped squirrels in spring and fall for parkas. My mother would tan the various animal skins and make mukluks, parkas, slippers and hats for her family

My Eskimo name is pronounced 'Ah-gha-dtai-yak' and I was named after my grandmother, Dolly Komakhuk.