Everything Adds Up for This Year's Favorite Artist

It was an unexpected layoff from her job as an accountant that caused Christina Lynn Johnson to refocus on her life-long interest in art.

She started taking art classes, and ultimately taught watercolor at Atelier, a Chatsworth art supply store that offered art classes. One day owner Terri Balady brought in a glass artist to teach a class.  Christina took that class, she says, and was immediately hooked. She continued her fused glass studies with notable glass artists Roger Thomas and Catherine Newell. Some nine months after that first glass art class, Christina turned her garage into a studio, bought a kiln, and has been doing fused glass art for the past 10 years. 

Much of her fused glass art shows a decided Asian influence.  She recalls having seen in a magazine a little kimono pendent with a jewel in it and saw herself doing that in glass.  “Styling the kimonos is like making your own paper dolls. It’s really fun. I might possibly work the kimonos into my paper arts, which I’d ultimately like to expand into multimedia,” she said.

Her work now includes fusion glass, paintings, drawings, jewelry, painted silk, and paper arts.

Christina markets her glass works at outdoor festivals, primarily in Thousand Oaks and Chatsworth. She is represented by the Idylwild Gallery of Fine Art, the Pacific Asia Museum, and the Marshall-Lekae Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ. 

Marriage and child rearing had diverted Christina from her art for a while but today her grown son is also an artist. They have done two shows together, including the Canoga Park Art Walk last week.

Christina is a board member of the Chatsworth Fine Arts Council, a non-profit, visual arts support organization which provides venues for west valley artists to display their work and also shares information on the professional aspects of being an artist. The Council has organized art events for more than 10 years in the North West Valley and at the annual Chatsworth Depot art show where Christina had two pieces hanging:  a watercolor and a fused glass piece.

At this year’s art show Christina won first place as Favorite Artist: the "People’s Choice" award. “Sometimes it gets lonely being an artist,” she says. “It’s nice to know that other people appreciate your work and that you make them happy.”

This year's Valley Artists Studio Tour is “a great excuse to get my house all cleaned up,” says Christina, where 24 Valley artists will open their studios to the public during the weekend of October 1-2.

The proceeds from this event, sponsored by the San Fernando Valley Arts Council, will benefit art education programs and scholarships for San Fernando Valley art and music students.  This is the fourth year of Christina’s participation in the show. “My house is the only venue where I can show the different kinds of art I do.” 

To discover more of her art visit her website at christylfusion.com.