March 17, 2005 will be the first year I spent without both of my grandparents around. Life doesn't seem the same. I think alot about both of them. I remember how they loved each other in a way I could never fully understand. People always talk about that special bond that older folks sometimes have and now I realize what they meant.
I miss each of them dearly and wish that I had just one more day to spend with them. To learn more from them. To enjoy their company. It seems you never spend enough time in life doing what matters. It's so easy to get caught up in the game. That is a hard lesson to learn and, unfortunately, most of us learn it the hard way.
the antlers and bones seemed to come alive. A whole new world opened to me. It appeared that any discarded bone or antler could be transformed into a life-like object of beauty.
I am an instinctive carver. Every piece is a challenge. It has always been amazing to me to see my carvings slowly come alive with my inner feelings. It gives me great satisfaction to be able to give life to some animal that has lived his life upon this earth and the remains discarded and thrown away.
My work makes me fully realize that life is a circle. Even though we cannot see this circle, it does not mean it isn't there."
While he did not grow up within the traditional rituals of his people, his real life experiences paralleled that of his ancestors, who were noted farmers, hunters and warriors. Hill left the reserve and worked on fruit farms and in construction in the Lewiston, New York, area, where he met his wife Alma, a Tuscarora Indian. He then became an ironworker, like many other Mohawk men in his era, and was drafted into the American Navy during the World War II, where he served as a deep sea diver in the South Pacific to locate and repair ships.
After the war he returned to Buffalo, New York, and resumed his career as an ironworker.
The tragic death of one of his four sons in a car accident changed Stan's life. He became more introspective and turned to art for consolation. He started by carving rings out of stainless steel nuts he would pick up on the job site. His first works were of animals and images of ironworking. On a mountain-climbing trip in Alaska, he saw an eagle for the first time in his life and watched as it swooped down and captured a fish. Upon returning home, he was given a piece of bone and encouraged to carve that eagle by his brother-in-law, Duffy Wilson, himself a stone sculptor. When he did, a whole new life was begun, at the age of 55. Hill decided to sell his construction business and take up carving full time. "For 33 years I worked in the construction business, up there in the sky with the high steel," explained Stan. "It was a dangerous job, very hard work. I was good at it. But there's more to a man than making a living."
Hill is a self-taught artist, carving moose and deer antler, animals bones and ivory. His work recalls traditional beliefs, but it is truly unique in that he taught himself how to carve, how to craft the images he wants, and how to market his work. In fact, he did not have much schooling at all, but worked hard to make his life significant to himself, his family as well as the others he meets through his art. He is proud of his accomplishments but is not comfortable calling himself an artist, as he views the process of making art as a gift from a higher power. He believes that the power to think about the meaning of life is enhanced by the discipline that art requires. The hours it takes to carve allow him to think about the things that matter to him and to work his way through what he was taught, what he used to believe, and to seek a more enlightened understanding. In this way, Hill believes that one of the functions of art for Indians is the meditative process: the creative energy of making art feeds the creative thinking about meaning.
Hill lived with the belief that life without struggles is no life. His own struggles have enriched his life. With each success he grew more thankful for the gift of art. Through his antler and bone carvings he grew more sensitive to the ways of his ancestors. His work shows the eagles, deer, bear, turtles, beaver, herons, hawks and wolves that animate the oral history of his people, as well as the legendary spirit of corn, beans and squash that he experienced as a young boy planting seeds, hoeing the fields and harvesting the fruits of the earth.