Today we’d like to introduce you to Sam Reeves Hill.
Sam, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’ve always lived a creative life. Growing up in rural Tennessee, I was homeschooled until 8th grade, and was encouraged to explore the world around me, follow my curiosity, and use my imagination. While pursuing fine art wasn’t always on my radar, I knew that whatever path I chose would be a creative one.
I earned my degree in visual arts with a concentration in graphic design, and for a long time my primary creative outlets were illustrations and digital media. I’ve always been drawn to typography, advertising, and visual storytelling; interests that still find their way into my work today. After graduating, I realized that working as a graphic designer and spending mot of my day behind a computer didn’t feel aligned with the life I wanted for myself.
In 2017, I began exploring painting through abstraction, initially just trying to discover what felt natural to me. Over time, that experimentation developed into a more personal, visual language. My background in design is still very present, but painting has given me freedom to work more intuitively with color, texture, collage, and the physical act of making. Since 2022, I’ve had three solo exhibitions and participated in several group exhibitions in Memphis. I still see my work as something that is continually evolving, which is one of the things I enjoy most about being an artist.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
That made me laugh. Life isn’t smooth, and the creative path is definitely crooked. I’ve questioned more times than I’d like to admit whether this is the direction I should be going. Genuine expression can be intimidating, vulnerable, and a hundred other adjectives. There’s always that internal dialogue…Is what I’m making honest? Am I saying something, or am I just making something pretty? Well, pretty to the people who enjoy abstract art.
There are practical challenges. Art can be seasonal financially, and I’m not a full-time artist (yet.) For as long as I’ve been painting, I’ve also worked in the restaurant industry, often contributing creatively to those spaces as well. I’m grateful to have different outlets for that part of myself, but creative energy isn’t an unlimited resource. There are times when work has to take a priority and my studio practice gets pushed to the back burner.
Maybe that balance has been one of the biggest challenges, trying to protect my time and energy maintaining a consistent creative practice, while still showing up fully for the other parts of my life. I’m continually learning how to make room for both.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a mixed-media artist, and my work dances somewhere between abstraction, storytelling, and organized chaos. I work primarily with acrylic, oil pastel, and collage, building layers through bold color, texture, found imagery, and whatever else finds its way into my process.
My background in graphic design is still very present in the way I approach composition. I’m drawn to the way images communicate, but painting allows me to take those instincts somewhere more intuitive. I like creating pieces that can be experienced across the room, but at the same time, reward someone who takes the time to get up close, personal, and spend time with the smaller details.
A lot of my work comes back to the human experience, memories, familiar places, curiosity, dreams, and the little things we find meaning in along the way. My most recent series, ROOTS, brought that closer to home by exploring my own relationship with where I grew up and how we shape our own ideas of home. I’m interested in taking things that are very personal and leaving enough openness for someone else to find their own story in it.
What I’m most proud of is that the work I create has become recognizingly mine. I’m less interested in fitting neatly into a particular category than I am in continuing to develop a visual language that feels like me.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
What an impossible question. I genuinely had a magical childhood out in the woods on the outskirts of Somerville, so it’s hard to choose just one memory. My first thought is the string game.
Every year, my Great Aunt Joyce would plan these elaborate games for all of the cousins. Throughout the year, Aunt Joyce would collect yarn, and on Thanksgiving the adults would wind it through the trees in the woods in front of my grandparent’s house, creating this giant, tangled maze. My mom and her siblings each had three kids, so there were 15 of us very close in age, sometimes more when second cousins, friends, or later significant others joined in.
We’d be divided into teams and had to unwind our strand until we reached the first clue. It then became a full scavenger hunt through the house, to my grandfather’s irritation about shoes inside.
It was very competitive. First place got the best prize, second got something decent, and by third or fourth you were probably getting candy. Competitive spirit was rewarded in my family.
Looking back though, what I remember most is the feeling of being a part of this big, imaginative, slightly chaotic community. We’re all grown now and scattered across the country, but the closeness never left us. That sense of belonging is something I’ll treasure forever.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://samartist.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samreeveshill
