Artist Biography

Hershall grew up in South Texas which instilled a deep respect for and a sense of belonging to the land. Hershall remains motivated by this landscape and its original inhabitants as an integral component to his art making practice. Ancient pictographs and petroglyphs from the Southwest have inspired his directions in a variety of art forms such as jewelry, glass blowing, printmaking, assemblage art, sculpture, and painting.

He says about his art, “I am borrowing some of these symbols from other culture groups as has been the extensive practice throughout art history. While not imitating or alluding solely to native American spirituality, my images use an old visual language combined with contemporary materials and methods to suggest concepts of transcendence, power, and the supernatural.”

Hershall earned the BFA in Art Education from Sam Houston State University in 1978 and the MFA in Painting and Drawing from Louisiana State University in 1983. He served as the Visual Arts Co-Director at the Cultural Activities Center in Temple before beginning his extensive teaching career at UMHB, where he taught for 33 years. Hershall won many awards for his teaching and service to the university and has influenced an immeasurable number of students. He taught a host of courses with his favorites being painting, art metals, and glass blowing. Alongside teaching Hershall was the gallery director and Chair of the Art Department until his retirement in 2022. Hershall continues to adjunct his favorite courses and maintains a disciplined studio practice. If you can’t find Hershall teaching or in his studio you might be able to find him playing a gig around Central Texas with his band The Schade Tree.