Margaret Nicole Blevins, born in the deep south, was raised in a traditional home whose ideals centered around knowledge through inquiry and extensive travel, which cultivated a spirit of empathy and observation. Margaret continued her education by obtaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Montevallo and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Memphis College of Art. Exploration of ideas, cultures, and people continue to inform her life, art, and creative process.

Inspired by her travels, Margaret became interested in a single idea and how it fit into her global outlook. This idea was simply, home. What was it? Where was it? Who was it? As an adult living back in her childhood home, these questions seemed especially relevant. For a child home is something tangible; a pink house nestled by a creek, surrounded by sweet gum trees. But this word could no longer remain concrete and the adult mind demanded a new definition. Instead of being the foundation that held days together, “home” became a symbol for shared ambitions. It still holds a permanence in life, but is altered from a geographical place to a transcendent one. No longer is it a physical part of life’s chronology, but a liminal moment, a threshold, a portal, through which one can pass when in need of rest or resurgence.

These large paintings serve as illustrations of this new idea of home; golden archways that carve themselves into the fortresses of the psyche, standing tall, as new beginnings, as well as studies in pink that become compilations of humanity and divinity, existing in transcendent compositions. The process of painting becomes a part of a sacred rite, a journey towards sanctification, carry4ing home as a talisman and guide.