B. 1942 in Culver City, California. Studied painting at Brigham Young University and, the University of California at Los Angeles before finishing his formal education at BYU. Taught art professionally for over 20 years.

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.