Born and raised by the descendants of hillbillies, Jill Foote-Hutton is an artist following in the tradition of medicine woman and storytellers through her creative practice dubbed Whistlepig Studio. She has earned a living as a teacher, curator, writer, artist, and arts administrator since 2003. She has been graced with the opportunities to travel to Greece, Denmark, China, Japan, and glorious locales within the United States in the name of contemporary craft.

She was the Coordinator of Artist Services and Storytelling at Northern Clay Center where she managed fellowships, grants, and artists’ residencies. She was Curator of Exhibitions at Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, Montana from 2010-2014. She was Gallery Director and lead faculty for seven years at East Central College in Union, Missouri. Her MFA was earned at the University of Mississippi in 2003, and her BFA was earned at Webster University in 1994.

Whether she is spinning her own tales, chronicling observations from the world of clay and the world at large, or facilitating others’ voices through word and form, she has always been committed to the craft of storytelling. As of January 2020, she was appointed as the Editor of The Studio Potter, a non-profit periodical, centered on studio practice, promoting discussion of technology, criticism, aesthetics, and history within the ceramics community.

Guardian Monsters

Every Guardian Monster is an amalgamation of real experiences. Each Guardian Monster is a chimera, a combination of characteristics observed from our world’s flora and fauna, and sometimes machine, and sometimes the human condition – or at least their physical characteristics as a whole are manifestations of such. Every Guardian Monster figurehead is an artifact of a moment gone by and a moment yet to come. “Monster” as a spiritual tool is a tradition I willfully jumped into. I am engaging in a conversation about ritual and religion. I facilitate acts of spiritual reclamation through Guardian Monster workshops. I posit that totem, talisman, god, demon, angel, witch, hero, and spirit from any tradition can be equally used as devices of oppression. To counteract the misappropriation of the mystical, Guardian Monsters seize power from an authoritarian state and return power to the hearts and minds of the individual.