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“People often ask me why I paint such beautiful, flawless women and poofy, flawed men. My response is, ‘Do you really want to see flawed, poofy women instead?’ Of all the reasons that people enjoy art, perhaps the most obvious and enduring is that it is beautiful. The human soul craves beauty.
“As an artist, I want people to stop and look. If it is a particularly attractive face, realistic jewel or large hat that stops them in their tracks, that’s fine with me. I use complicated patterns and bright colors primarily because I like them, but they also serve to attract and maintain the viewers’ attention. With many of the women I paint, there is less of a need to define a storyline. I can focus more on how the light from above illuminates the folds in a gown.
“The truth is that is it easier for me to relate to the poofy guys, to use them as avatars to reflect my own faults and those I observe in my fellow human beings. I have found that, with very few exceptions, men and women alike relate to the foibles of the poofy guys and enjoy the grace and loveliness of the beautiful women.”
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Inspired by the world’s myths, fables and tales of imagination, James C.
Christensen’s work adds up to more than a beautiful - if sometimes “curious”
looking work of art. Having taught art professionally for over 20 years, he
thought 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.
Christensen has also won all the professional art honors the World Science
Fiction and Fantasy Convention can bestow, as well as multiple Chesley Awards
from the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists. Christensen has
been designated as a “Utah Art Treasure,” one of Utah’s Top 100 Artists by the
Springville Museum of Art and received the Governor’s Award for Art awarded by
the Utah Arts Council recognizing the significance of Christensen’s artwork to
Utah’s cultural communities. He was inducted into the U.S. Art magazine’s Hall
of Fame and is an Honored Alumnus at Brigham Young University for his
contributions to fine art and education. James and his wife Carole were co-
chairs on the Mormon Arts Foundation. He was a frequent guest lecturer at
Brigham Young University, and has also given workshops to large companies and
organizations on the subject of creative thinking, including the California Art
Educator’s Association, Hallmark and Intermountain Health Care.
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