A native of North Carolina, Taylor graduated in 1974 from Queens University of Charlotte with a BA in Art with additional studies at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1980, she and Dot Hodges founded Hodges Taylor Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina where she served as Managing Partner for 32 years, then Hodges Taylor Art Consultancy, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in promoting original art in the workplace. Retired in 2019, she serves as an advisor with Lauren Harkey, Owner/Director of Hodges Taylor Art Consultancy + Gallery. Christie Taylor moved to the Chincoteague Bay on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 2012 to return  to painting.

In 2017, Taylor was awarded a Ballinglen Arts Foundation Fellowship, County Mayo, Ireland and returned in 2018 and 2022. She curated SEEN + FELT, an exhibition at the Ballinglen Art Museum highlighting works in their permanent collection during her 2022 residency.

Taylor had an independently-funded residency at Cove Park in Scotland in October, 2023. She was awarded a residency at Tyrone Guthrie Center, County Monaghan, Ireland in July, 2024 and at Centrum, Port Townsend, Washington in Winter, 2025.