Richard Blevins
The Johnson County Center for the Arts celebrates artist Richard Blevins and his art work as its featured artist for the month of August. A self taught artist, Blevins works in mixed-media to create his images.
A lifelong resident and as Blevins tells it,“I was born in Dr. Glen’s office in downtown Mountain City.”
“As a child I always loved to draw,” said Blevins.“My mother was a quilter and if she saw a pattern she wanted to make I would draw it for her. I remember winning my first art contest in the fourth grade and when a teacher needed a map or illustration for class on the blackboard they would ask me to do it.”
After graduating from Milligan College (now University) in 1970 with a degree in business administration, Blevins was looking for work when the principal at Shady Valley Elementary asked if he would teach third and fouth grade for the year.“I told him I’d try it, and I loved it,” Blevins said.“I was always kind of shy, but after I got in front of the kids, that went away.” Blevins added,“I always made sure there was art in my classes. I would start with basic shapes, like squares or circles and then work that into the lesson.”
Blevins worked for the Johnson County School system for over 38 years. First as a teacher at Shady Valley Elementary, then as an assistant principal at Roan Creek Elementary. Later he moved to the central office in Mountain City before working with homebound students.
Always athletic, Blevins enjoyed playing basketball and baseball and participated in adult leagues well into his 50s. He also has a love of automobiles, which is evident in his artwork. He was a founding member of the Ford Mustang club which met in Bristol, Tennessee.
Blevins has suffered three strokes, the last one taking away the use of his right hand. He taught himself how to draw left-handed by first using coloring books,“then I slowly started adding in objects I created myself, like a Snoopy or Woodstock in the corner of the page, until I eventually was drawing everything again from scratch,” said Blevins.
Blevins usually creates a drawing each day; first rendering an automobile and then deciding what background to draw behind it.“It’s my therapy, for four to six hours that’s all I’m thinking about,” said Blevins.
