Christine Crosby

I was born in March of 1971 and named Christine Elizabeth after both of my grandmothers. I lived on the same road my whole childhood, and I love this about my family. Although we were mostly poor, my parents managed to keep the worst of the money troubles from my siblings and me. We thought it was the coolest to have hot dogs and mac-n-cheese several times a week!

Unless it was raining, or too cold to venture out, my little sister and I spent most of our time playing outside. We’d ride our teeter-totter into outer space, making certain to carry our stick ray-guns with us. We had about eight acres all together. Five of them were our yard and the remaining three were “The Woods.”

My dad and older brothers cut trails through the woods. These trails were lined with blackberry bushes and old VW parts. I have a vivid memory of stepping on a gardener snake while running through the woods. I remember it so well because I was in my bare feet; yes, in my BARE FEET running in the woods. Parenting was different in the seventies than it is today.

We loved to play among the trees… catching frogs, picking berries, riding the tractor through the trails…but there was always a sense of mystery to the woods as well. Just what kind of creature belonged to those red eyes that we saw shining at the dark edge of the trees at night?

I’m sure all of this time spent outside attributed to my love of trees from an early age. I drew millions of trees as a child. My third grade teacher, Mr. Wagner, was the first to notice my tree doodles. He encouraged me to keep drawing “those beautiful trees.” I am appreciative of him for noticing a driven talent in me. I just wish he hadn’t noticed it so loudly and in front of the whole class.

All of my family embraced art, each of us in our own way. So it wasn’t a surprise to anyone when I followed in my brothers’ footsteps and took several years of art in high school with Mr. Jailette. Mr. J encouraged me to draw from my first class with him in 7th grade (at that time, teddy bears were my specialty).

I graduated in the top ten of my class and went on to earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education from Youngstown State University. I figured teaching was a more stable way to earn a living (although just barely…teachers in America are drastically underpaid for what they do!) than as an artist. Plus, with the little kids, I could still dabble in art as part of my job! After ten years of teaching, I had earned my Master’s in Education from Marygrove College.

In my 11th year as a teacher, my husband and I found out we were going to have twins! We decided that I could stay home with the babies until they went back to school. I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity for me to work on my art projects! I’m sure all of you stay-at-home moms of little children are cracking up at such ignorance.

Now that the twins are almost four (good God, time flies!), I actually DO have some time for my art again. I’m working on my long-time dream of drawing trees, and the mysterious creatures that live among them, for a living!