We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christi Bunn. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Christi below.

Hi Christi, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Christmas gifts have played a pivotal part in my artistic journey through the years. It all started with two Christmas gifts I gave my mother and mother-in-law in 2006. As usual, I was trying my best to come up with something creative to give them that would be meaningful and rather lasting, I decided that I would try to draw their homes and give them notecards with the drawings on them. This was received with tears from both. What happened next was really unexpected. When friends and family saw these pieces, I began to get calls for commissions.

The first to call was from a wonderful friend, and next came a call from one of her friends. Then came a call from an acquaintance I had connected with through the internet… and then another and another. Then a repeat customer for whom I had done 3 of her previous homes wanted me to do both her daughters’ homes. As I was a freelance web designer at the time, I knew it was time to build myself a website. So, I purchased a domain name and set about building the website. The first year I had my website, I had 16 commissioned pieces to complete between Thanksgiving and Christmas… and I did! It was a challenge, but it also was such a confirmation that this was something that I was destined to do, if not full-time then at least part-time. Nearly 350 commissions later, here I am with a thriving commissioned art business having done mostly architectural pieces, with some people and animals thrown in. I have done commissions in nearly every medium… including graphite, pen and ink, watercolor, and oil.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My fine art paintings and drawings have been commissioned by clients across the United States and in the U.K. I am primarily sought out for my architectural pieces, from homes to churches to commercial buildings – even bridges and opera houses — and more. While my faithful representation of perspective lends itself to architectural works, I have also done portraits of people and animals. When I am not working on commissioned portraits, I love doing paintings in vivid color of everything from florals to landscapes to scenes of everyday life. I am inspired by the beauty I find around me every day and by the Creator whose hand is in every part of that beauty. I am so grateful to be doing what I love every day.

I was born and raised in Thomasville, Alabama, and graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in Advertising and Fine Art. It was at the University of Alabama that the “light bulb” came on for me with faithfully capturing perspective in architectural structures. This was due in large part to the instruction of the late Richard Burrell Brough, a brilliant artist and professor whose watercolor and pen and ink works are found in many collections throughout the world. (Professor Brough exhibited his work internationally with more than 100 one-man shows. His paintings were shown in the New York World’s Fair, shown in the Far East as part of a traveling art exhibit of the U.S. Information Agency, and selected for exhibition by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.) Professor Brough took our class to a location in the middle of campus called the Quad, which is surrounded by buildings on all four sides, and had us study how the angles of each building from where we were related to the horizon… the closer the building, the steeper the angle. This was the “light bulb” moment for me.

After college and early in my marriage, I worked in the corporate world and began learning digital design. Computer design was very new then, and I learned to use it as an illustration tool. This allowed me to transition into freelance graphic and web design in later years, so that I could be home with my young children and still work. It was when my children were approaching high school graduation that I felt that the time was right to pursue my fine art as a career. My husband and children have always been my biggest cheerleaders in my art journey.

I have lived in Birmingham, Alabama, for most of the last 38 years, where I have been blessed to be a part of a vibrant local art community. I have served as a board member of Mountain Brook Art Association since 2012 and have served twice as its president, first in 2016 and again in 2024. In addition, I serve on the board of Hoover Arts Alliance currently as vice president and am a member of Southeastern Pastel Society. There are two sides to my small business: one is my hand done artwork and the other is web and graphic design at Bunn Media.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding thing about my journey has been the friends I have made, whether clients who have commissioned my work or fellow artists in the art community where I live.

The most wonderful thing to me is getting a note from a client who tells me that when they gave the commissioned piece to a loved one, there was a tearful, joyful reception of the work. I have heard phrases like, “he said it was the best Christmas gift he ever received” or “my mom could not stop crying thinking of all the memories we had made there.” The places we’ve lived, visited, and in which we have experienced significant events together (such as a family home, church, wedding venue, vacation home, etc.) evoke strong and lasting memories. To help someone be reminded of those special memories with a piece of artwork truly brings me so much joy!

My fellow artists and friends in my local art community have constantly been a source of encouragement to me and have spurred me on to learn and grow and try new things as an artist. It has meant so much to me to be surrounded by truly great artists who are willing to share their time, their experience, their wisdom, their knowledge of media and tools, and so much more. I love my time in my studio creating a special commissioned piece, but I equally love the time spent learning and growing as a part of our local art community.

How did you build your audience on social media?

My first foray into social media came in 2009, when I created my Facebook page and began to share my art there. When friends and family saw the kind of artwork I was doing, I started regularly getting commissioned work from those connections. Then those who commissioned work followed my page, and their friends could see what I had done, building a new network of potential clients. Then years later along came Instagram, the perfect venue for sharing images with friends, acquaintances, and even new followers that I didn’t know personally. The ability to connect my website with my social media accounts caused my search rankings to increase whenever someone was searching for an artist who does architectural commissions. I believe that the internet and social media have given me a fabulous advantage that would never have been possible in the past. I continue to share my work on primarily those two social media sites and continue to make sales and get commissions when I do. It is such a blessing for me and really is such an aid in my pursuit to reach people with my art.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.christibunn.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christibunnart
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristiBunnArtwork
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/ChristiBunn
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ChristiBunnArts