James 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.

Having taught art professionally for over 20 years, Christensen 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 James Christensen's philosophy that "Believing is Seeing."

Inspired by the world's myths, fables, and tales of imagination, James Christensen wants his work to add up to more than a beautiful — if sometimes 'curious' looking work of art. James C. Christensen is one of the few people fortunate enough to create a world of his own and make you wish you could live in it. 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.

Jim Christensen 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.

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