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JAMES C. CHRISTENSEN

1942-2017

CountryUSA

BiographyInspired by the world's myths, fables and tales of imagination, James C. Christensen wants his work to add up to more than a beautiful - if sometimes curious looking work of art. Having taught art professionally for over 20 years, he likes to think of the world as his classroom. His hope is that through whatever he creates - be it a porcelain, fine art print or book - he can convey a message, inspiration or a simple laugh. He believes that teaching people to use their imagination helps us find solutions to sooth the stresses of everyday life or get a little lift to help us keep going. In short: all things are possible when you share Christensen's philosophy that "Believing is Seeing."

Christensen was born in 1942 and raised in Culver City, California. He studied painting at Brigham Young University and, for a while, the University of California at Los Angeles before finishing his formal education at BYU. Since then, he has had one-man shows in the West and the Northeast, and his work is prized in collections throughout the U.S. and Europe.

The artist has been commissioned by both Time/Life Books and Omni to create illustrations for their publications and his work has appeared in the prestigious American Illustration Annual and Japan's Outstanding American Illustrators. Christensen has also won all the professional art honors the World Science Fiction Convention can bestow, as well as multiple Chesley Awards from the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists.

Since retiring as a professor of art at BYU, James Christensen has devoted his full time to his artwork. His paintings, widely published in books and as limited edition fine art prints, have won many honors and awards. Born in Culver City, California, he now lives in Orem, Utah. His work depicts an imaginative world "a little to the left of reality." "I want to evoke questions like, 'What does this mean?' or 'What's going on?'," says Christensen. "I want to stimulate our natural curiostiy and encourage viewers to do some of the imaginative work."

Christensen's fine art now appears as works of art in porcelain from the Greenwich Workshop Collection, as well as artist-inspired products such as note cards, silk ties and books. The first book, A Journey of the Imagination: The Art of James Christensen, was published to great acclaim in 1994. His second book, the adventure fantasy Voyage of the Basset, has more than 75,000 copies in print. His third, the inventive Rhymes & Reasons, was published in May, 1997.

James C. Christensen is one of the few people lucky enough to create worlds of their own and make you wish you could live in them. Christensen fills his "land a little left of realty" with wonderful people, places, and things as real as your adult dreams and as beloved as your fondest childhood memories. The result is a unique kinetic kingdom where recognizable human emotions are often manifested as fish or fowl, utilizing the viewer's own imagination as no other artist does.

James Christensen has received many honors for his artwork. He now lives in Orem, Utah with his wife, Carole, and their four youngest children.

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