By Phoebe Bock 
Medill Reports

Even as a 4-year-old doodler, sitting at a picnic table and coloring with crayons, Christina Villa knew she wanted to be an artist. At 13, she got an acrylic paint set from her parents, sketched a still life of her grandmother’s teapot and thought, “I’m a real artist now.”  

Now 37, she is a real artist who owns the eponymous studio Christina M. Villa, which will celebrate its fifth year in October.  

“Time has moved by fast,” she said. “The space has been a beautiful vessel to work through the kinks of carving out my path as an entrepreneur.” 

Villa grew up in the Chicago suburbs as the oldest of nine children (now woodworkers, cartoonists, drawers, bakers and home DIYers) and picked up her paintbrush for quiet “me time,” she said. As a graduate of the School of the Art Institute, and with a surplus of pottery cluttering the counters of her apartment, she began her business. After hosting a holiday art sale and working out of her home to enter exhibitions, she moved into her Wicker Park studio in October 2021.  

“It was just time to try to do something new with art and give it space to grow,” Villa said.  

After shifting again in 2024, leaving her art and Spanish high school teaching positions to run her business full time, Villa decided to take ownership of her practice. Her “nonlinear” path came with challenges, but embracing creativity beyond something she did on the side and learning to shift her self-view to identify as a painter and sculptor transformed her career.  

“Being an artist feels like a full-time experience,” said Clare Britt, the photographer who has been shooting Villa’s catalogue for a decade. 

Villa is a lifelong creative, said Abigail Goldman, her high school best friend who displays five of her paintings and a mug collection etched with scenes of Montrose Harbor in her home.  

“Watching her start her business has been so inspiring,” Goldman said. “I have no doubt she’s going to continue making art, and I think it’s just about embracing wherever she is in her life and what that allows her to create.” 

Initially, one of the studio’s neighbors couldn’t tell if Villa’s space was a studio or a home because of its comfy couches and abundant greenery.  

“Her work speaks for itself,” said Kaitlyn Miller, director of the nearby Jackson Junge Gallery. “It’s stunning.”  

With works of ocean sunsets and crashing waves hanging on the walls, Villa’s studio resembles a cozy living room where she shows off her other passion, playing with her plants.  

In the summer, Villa sets up her easel on Lake Michigan. In the winter, when she’s ready for a break from painting, she shifts to pottery. A batch of six mugs takes her two weeks. After throwing a cup on the wheel, trimming, drying time and firing both before and after glazing, the collection is complete. As for paintings, she might spend three to 26 hours on one piece.  

While working on a 92-by-73-inch commission titled “Nami,” painted directly on the wall of a Gold Coast dental studio, Villa debuted what she calls her “textured wave work.” Essentially, she marries her painting and pottery skills, her “two lungs,” using her hands to sculpt waves splashing off the canvas. In 2024, she introduced the series after submitting a textured wave diptych, a painting spread over two separate panels, to Jackson Junge’s exhibition featuring works of any medium on a 10-by-10-inch block.  

“Artists like Christina were doing that first,” Miller said.  

In the two-step process of creating her waves, which is spread out over several days, Villa first adds texture using latex, lets it dry and then lays down layers of acrylic paint.  

Whether she’s teaching open classes, guiding students over 21 through a project at her paint-and-sip events or opening her gallery for the monthly Wicker Park First Fridays Art Walk, Villa said she enjoys building community.  

“People want to know ‘Who is she behind the painting?’ One of the beautiful gifts of teaching is that I get to share more of myself beyond the work,” Villa said. “I love when someone is originally from somewhere by a big body of water and they come in and feel like they’re home. That’s a special moment both for the person and me as an artist.” 

As Villa marks her fifth year in her studio, she appreciates the opportunities this place gave her to expand her practice.  

“It’s about always having space to create and always giving herself that space and time,” Goldman said.  

After exploring other faiths and losing a close friend in college, Villa returned to Catholicism. She and her husband, Patrick Buss, a software developer and novelist, traveled to Vatican City last fall for the Sposi Novelli celebration, which translates to “newlywed couples” in Italian. The group of 200 partners married within the past two months in the Catholic Church gathered on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica for a photo with Pope Leo XIV. “We’re from Chicago!” Villa cheered to the Chicago-born pope, who smiled at them as he greeted the crowd for a picture.  

Villa and Buss are expecting their first child this year, and with this change, she plans to take on more of a mentorship and teaching role, helping emerging artists navigate and break into the industry in spring 2026.  

“Maybe it’s the teacher in me, but I just don’t think it should be so hard to do something that you love,” Villa said. Many young artists feel intimidated by the art world, and she said she hopes to be a resource and give young creators the tips to succeed she once wished for.  

“The shape of my practice has always taken on the shape of my life,” Villa said. “They’ve always been able to find a way and move together, even though that shape morphs. I’m excited to see what this upcoming shift, having a family and the hybrid career will bring.”  

Her next chapter? Maybe fingerpainting her gallery walls with a tiny helper.  

Phoebe Bock is a magazine specialization graduate student at Medill.