Jools Annie (Julia Hutt) is a self-taught multi-disciplinary artist residing in Kjipuktuk (Halifax), Nova Scotia. Inspired by her own experience with pregnancy, birthing and baby-raising, Jools works with both traditional and digital illustration to create anecdotal scenes that portray snapshots of early parenthood. Common themes in her work include lactation, body positivity, and birthing people’s mental and physical changes. This work aims to challenge the capitalist devaluation of child rearing work and traditionally gendered work, such as housework and feeding kids.
Jools regularly does digital illustration work and commissioned portrait work.
In 2022, Jools received the Media Art Scholarship at Centre for Art Tapes. During this program, she created an animated piece titled Today, Any Day, that offers a glimpse into the repetitive and mundane tasks of early motherhood. In 2023, after the birth of her second child, Jools started a painting practice focused on acrylics and explored self-portraiture through the lense of art therapy as a participant of the group residency Wounded Healer at the Khyber Centre for the Arts in 2024.
She is currently working on a painting series inspired by her time at home with her young children.

Photo: John Walsh