- Born: 1934
- Active: Manchester (Coffee County)
- Region: Middle
- Mediums: Masking Tape Sculpture
- Website | Instagram | Facebook
Willard Hill
When local artist Willard Hill was born, a gallon of gasoline cost 19 cents, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president of the United States and desegregation of public schools was still 20 years off. Now 88 years old, the lifelong Manchester resident is gaining worldwide attention with his mixed media sculptures.
Hill’s work ranges in theme from guitar playing musicians to a colorful fishing boat to Biblical scenes such as Jonah and the whale and Daniel and the lion –all made from masking tape and other items he finds laying around his home.
“My wife got some wire to make a clothes line, and it had been sitting there under the table for years and I just picked it up and started messing with it,” Hill said. “I had some tape there and it the first thing looked like a little bird, and so I got to making that stuff and then after a while it all just came to me.”
Known as outsider art, Hill’s work has been displayed in galleries around the country, including Los Angeles and New York, as well as overseas.
Hill said he first began creating his sculptures several years ago when he was having to make regular trips to the hospital. He said the art drew the attention of area resident Bill Nickels, who put him in touch with a gallery in California.
“The first time she saw it she handed me a $100 bill and I said well, I have never done anything like this before,” he said.
Hill’s work is next scheduled to be featured in an East Tennessee State University exhibition titled “Black Bodies Making Form.” The exhibition will run August through October at the university’s Tipton & Slocumb Galleries and is co-curated by Karen LeBlanc.
Hill, who worked as a cook in Manchester for 64 years, said he is thankful he is still able to create something with his hands at his age.
“This is a problem today, we think that we do things on our own but we don’t,” he said. “If it wasn’t for the Father… we can’t even go to bed without him putting us to sleep and can’t wake up without him.”
While sometimes he has an idea of what he wants to make when he sits down to create one of his masking tape sculptures, such as a fishing boat, a lot of times Hill doesn’t really know what the final result will be when he begins a new piece.
Hill said he still enjoys fishing, but the hot weather has limited how much time he can do that, so he has been making more art.
While most of his work comes from imagination, Hill said he has done some pieces based on his real-life experiences. One of these is a horse[1]drawn wagon, loaded with hay.
“My father and I had just picked up some loose hay and we were taking it home to the barn and my father was sitting up in front and I am sitting up on top of the hay…with the fork,” Hill said. “I am holding onto the fork and something scared the horse and we started running, that hay slipped off and I am still holding to the fork and the hay and my daddy, I guess he run a block or two before he got that horse stopped.”
Hill said that when he looks back on growing up in Manchester, he remembers some hard times, but said all in all, “it wasn’t too bad.”
“I made it through you know, and I can’t really say anything bad about it,” he said. “We up grew poor. We didn’t have nothing but what we did have we were satisfied with.”
Hill recalled how oatmeal and cornflakes were two staples in his home growing up. “A lot of times we didn’t have the milk to go with it, but we sat down at the table and gave God thanks for that,” he said. “I will say that we have come a long way.”
Hill said that while he is happy his work is receiving some attention, he believes it sets a good example for his family members. “It is good, really for my kids and my grandkids to see at this age, it doesn’t make any difference how old you are, that you can do something,” he said.
Source: Longtime Manchester resident creates masking tape sculptures, by Nathan Havenner
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