MANCHESTER, Tenn. (WTVF) — An artist may prefer paints, sketch boards, or sculpting clay.
You may not have seen a craft quite like what a man in Manchester does. He's proving you can take anything and create beauty.
"I told my wife, I can't understand why I started making stuff like this!" said Willard Hill, drawing lines across a small piece of art. "I had no idea I could do this kind of stuff."
Once he starts, Willard will work tirelessly on multiple pieces in his little home in Manchester. The art is distinctly his.
"I've got boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff I've sat here and made," he said. "I've got to make something every day."
Willard's best guess is he's now created about 25,000 pieces, all made from masking tape.
For 64 years, Willard was a cook in Manchester and middle Tennessee. He thought that was his ultimate calling in life, but on a day in 1982, he simply felt compelled to pick up some tape and start.
"It just came up all at once!" he said. "God put that in me. It was the good Lord who put that inside me and showed me things. He's gonna show you how to do it."
Some of the pieces share Willard's story.
"Now this is going to be my daddy," he said, holding up a work-in-progress.
Another piece on his wall is of Willard, his father, and a horse the family-owned.
Willard's work has been seen in exhibits across the country including Main Street Gallery in Clayton, Georgia, and the Good Luck Gallery in Los Angeles, California.
Willard said life has taught him something.
"Everybody don't get the same gifts," he said.
At 88 years old, Willard has every intention to stick to this art.
"You didn't tell me to start, and you can't tell me when to stop," he said. "God started me to doing this, and when he want me to stop, he'll stop me. That's how it's going to be."
Willard's work will next be seen in an exhibit at East Tennessee State University running next month into October. The exhibit will be called Crafting Blackness and will feature Black craft artists of Tennessee.
