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Christine Johnston, who goes by the name of Chris, was born in 1949 in Thunder Bay, Ontario as Eleanor Christine Climie. She is the middle of three children. She was raised in Red Rock, Ontario.

In 1967, she moved to Kingston, Ontario, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Queen's University from 1967 to 1971. She moved to Toronto, Ontario in 1971, where she attended the University of Toronto from 1971 to 1972, earning a Bachelor of Education in intermediate and senior divisions. She taught art at Kipling Collegiate in Etobicoke from 1972-1973. In 1973, she married James Gregory Johnston, with whom she has three children. From 1973 to 1974, she taught foods and art at Widdifield Secondary School in North Bay, Ontario. From 1974 to the 1980s, she taught at Alderwood Collegiate. When it closed, she taught high school art at Lakeshore Collegiate.

In 1986, she and her family moved to North Bay. She supply taught for a year and then taught art and sewing at Widdifield Secondary School. She taught for one year at Northern Secondary School in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario. She was then hired as one of three teachers to open an alternative high school, working out of what is now a public elementary French school across from Memorial Gardens. She was at the Alternative School from September 1993 to June 1996, when she was transferred to Widdifield Secondary School. At Widdifield, she taught the Visual Arts courses for the Arts Nipissing Programme until she retired in 2002. She has been teaching drawing and Canadian Art History at Nipissing University since 2002.

Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at Woodlands Gallery, South River, Ontario (1998); Sir Harry Oakes Museum and Gallery, Kirkland Lake, Ontario (1997); White Water Gallery, North Bay, Ontario (1993) and The Frame Maker & Gallery, North Bay, Ontario (1989).

(The biographical information featured here was written in consultation with the artist in 2006.)

Interview:

Christine Johnston's earliest memory of being interested in art is that she always coloured in colouring books, and that she had a vivid imagination. She grew up in an environment of talented people, with artistically talented cousins and a brother who makes stained glass. She wasn't exposed to a lot of art growing up in a small northern town, but she learned techniques like chalk drawing through a school art club.

Although Christine didn't consider herself to be an artist until the late 1980s, she credits Lorna Brown, a supply teacher she had in Grade 9, with motivating her to take her art seriously. She says that truthfully, she sees herself as "more a teacher than an artist", and that teaching is a very creative experience.

Capturing something large and synthesizing seems to be a common approach in Christine's works. She talks about ideas being too big for words and people as being incomplete creations. In her art, she strives to explore people's perceptions. Music opens her mind while she works, allowing ideas to flow out easily.

(By Kati Kirke, based on an interview in September, 2006).

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Christine Johnston
2006

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Christine Johnston, Fire in my Heart, charcoal on painted canvas
2006

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Christine Johnston, Artist statement
2006