FARMINGTON — Russ Christensen has a passion for art, and for supporting a variety of causes to help the needy.

His latest adventure is an art gallery, Rusty’s Art Shop that he’s setting up at 131 Bridge St. On March 15, from 6-8 p.m., Christensen will hold a grand opening.

“(Rusty) was the name my grandfather gave me when I was 2 years old,” he said.

The event is a fundraiser for the Lakota Indian Defense Fund, as the tribe has been battling a proposed oil pipeline that will cross their native lands and the Missouri River in North Dakota. The project will have an adverse impact on the tribe’s drinking water, Christensen said.

“I’m donating about 10 paintings,” he said.

Two years ago, Christensen’s home on Morrison Hill Road in Farmington burned when it was hit by lightning. When the bolt struck, the power was knocked out to the home and he was unable to call for help.

“I ran in my car to the fire station,” he recalled. “They were just pulling out to go to New Sharon. I stopped them and said, ‘You’ve got a fire right here.'”

The firefighters responded immediately, but there was nothing they could do to save the contents of Christensen’s home. The inside of it was burned out, and he lost hundreds of pieces of artwork.

“I lost my cat that I loved very dearly,” he said.

Some of the art was saved, and in a storage space at his 131 Bridge St. building, he shows log books that survived the fire. Christensen mentions that he’s kept a diary of every day since 1984.

After the fire, he thought about starting an art gallery to house the artwork he’s collected.

“I thought of it and thought of taking it in New York to Sotheby’s,” Christensen said. “I’ve gone to all the auction houses in Maine. The problem is they want to make a lot and they don’t want you to have any of it.”

His eyes lit up during a tour of the gallery. One of the art pieces is being sold for $10,000.

“It’s probably 800 years old,” Christensen said. “It’s Costa Rican, created by the Indians. It’s a matate. They put corn on it and they made tortillas.”

He showed a sculpture from Haiti.

“This is Captain Morgan,” he said. “His eyes got split by a sword.”

Christensen has a number of paintings by the late Sandy Gregor, a former Franklin Journal reporter.

“I have a house full of art,” he said. “I have a lot of desks, chairs, Chinese vases.”

An ornately carved wooden sculpture hangs from one of the posts in the gallery.

“This is probably Chinese,” Christensen said. “It’s made out of extremely hard wood. It’s an ornament.”

In another place in the gallery stands a Chinese dragon stand, made of cast iron.

“I would say that it goes back 500 or 600 years, maybe,” Christensen said.

He shows a small, pre-Colombian wooden water flask from South America that is about 800 years old.

“I love well-worn things, as you can see,” he said.

Christensen hadn’t yet decided what hours Rusty’s Art Shop will be open. For more information, call 860-2857.

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