Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sam Still is best known for his large-format burnished black ink drawings on paper. Some with emphatically flat silhouettes of organic shapes as well as rectangles that divide and or connect, others with exposed white shapes, that when engaged over a prolonged period, will oscillate between object and opening. His obsessions are contours, edges, and repetition.

Reared in the 60s and the son of a tool and die maker, it is machined metal and the lines of automobiles, machines, hand tools and home appliances that fueled the contours of Still's works and the hours spent in his dad's machine shop fed the need for manipulation of materials and substrate. Being raised in South Carolina (his father's home state) included yearly visits, beginning at age 4, to his mother's parents in
Philadelphia where his grandfather was an artist. Opportunities to explore his grandfather's studio occurred during the yearly visits, though these visits did not influence his future practice, he did understand that the "art world" existed.

Still eventually landed in San Francisco and then New Orleans and later New York City for close to 20 years. In 2010 his work was included in the major Biennial, Prospect New Orleans. He now lives and works in upstate New York.