
Oak Hill Middle School students were treated to another year of having a wonderful guest artist in residence for the past two weeks! Tim Olyphant, known better as Mr. Ollie, spent the past two weeks working with our students to showcase their creative talents while focusing them on academic topics like biology and the human body.
Mr. Ollie was born in Nashville, TN in 1961. He took his first art class in the fifth grade and found he had a knack for drawing. After that, he and his parents moved to Lewisburg, TN where he had no art in schools from 6th grade to the 12th grade, so he was mostly self taught. After attending a small art school in Franklin, TN he then began in 1983 freelancing his cartoons and illustrations to newspapers, ad agencies,and magazines in Nashville and throughout Tennessee. Since then his work has appeared in state, regional, and national magazines and agencies.
Mr. Ollie’s cartoons and illustrations have appeared in such publications as The Saturday Evening Post, Woman’s World, American Legion, Boy’s Life, Highlights for Children, Cobblestone, Odyssey, Appleseeds, Dig, and many others. Beginning in 1987 Mr. Ollie started his work with teachers and students throughout Tennessee as a “teaching artist”. As he became more known for his work in schools, he worked with schools through artist rosters in St. Louis, Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, Ohio, Indiana, Mississippi, and Virginia. Mr. Ollie has received a School Bell Award from the Tennessee Education Association for his editorial cartooning work on educational issues. He was also named Outstanding Artist in Residence by The Tennessee Arts Commission. Mr. Ollie is a long time member of the National Cartoonists Society and he lives on his 12 acre farm with Abby, his dog, in Lewisburg, TN.