Inspired: Stained Glass Artist Sherrill Hill

When I was little and wanted to spend time with my dad, we’d head to his workshop or to work in the yard. I grew up outside and tinkering with tools. Then I went to the Fine Arts Center in Greenville, where I studied theater, and continued learning about art and theater through college. When it was time for an internship, I found a stained glass place near the University of South Carolina and I fell in love. I learned hands-on. I didn’t learn from a class. 

Now I’ve been working with glass for nearly three decades. My family has lived in other parts of the country, in North Carolina and Mississippi, before moving back home to Greenville. But I feel so inspired by this setting. Driving into the Upstate you feel it. You can feel the soul of the place. 

I wake up at the crack of dawn and head to my workshop. I thoroughly enjoy the morning because I love watching the sunrise, seeing my neighborhood owls and hawks, and listening to the creek that runs right beside my home. I’m very lucky to have nature surrounding me. I’m inspired by it every day. 

When I’m creating stained glass, everything I do functions within light. The feeling I want you to get — and I pray about it every time I enter my shop and work on a piece — is oneness with the light you see. I want you to walk in a room and feel the soul of the piece.

View more of Sherrill’s work at sherrillsartglass.com or on social media @sherrillsartglass.