Photo by Alex Bramall
I have always been drawn to the edges of things.
As a child, I would rush to the front seat at the top of the double-decker bus to watch the changing cloudscapes and see the world from a bird's-eye view. Later, as an art student in Edinburgh, I filled sketchbooks with scribbled drawings of winter sunsets from Greyfriars Bridge and the shifting waters, winds and skies of Portobello Beach.
I still gather fragments in much the same way: changing cloud formations, birdsong, shifting light, overheard conversations, remembered places, found objects and fleeting moments. Over time these observations settle, blur and connect in unexpected ways.
Working across drawing, sculpture, textiles, sound and collaborative projects, I follow these threads wherever they lead. A cloud drawing may become a musical score. A whispered memory may find its way into a sculpture. Discarded objects are given new lives. Materials are chosen for the stories they carry and the traces they hold.
Much of my work explores migration, memory, longing and transformation. I am interested in the movement of people, birds, weather systems and ideas; in the connections between landscape, belonging and identity; and in the ways experiences are carried across time through objects, stories, sounds and gestures.
Following the death of my mother, I began making a small concrete cube inscribed with words I had left unsaid. Created intuitively and held in the hand like a worry stone, Silent Hum became the starting point for a larger body of work. What began as a private act of remembrance evolved into Tattooing the Tuba — an exhibition bringing together sculpture, drawing, poetry and newly composed music. Through collaboration with poet Nick Hood and composer Jess Faber, drawings became music, poems became sculpture, and grief gradually opened into something expansive: a celebration of connection, transformation and the unexpected ways creativity brings people together.
Whether working alone in the studio, drawing beneath a changing sky, or collaborating with artists, musicians, scientists and communities, my practice begins with noticing. I am interested in what lingers beneath the surface: the traces we leave behind, the stories carried by materials, and the quiet connections that bind us to one another and to the natural world.
I started with noticing the world.
It seems to have led me back to people.
Based in Wiltshire, England, and the Llyn Peninsula, Wales, Julieann Worrall Hood studied Fine Art in Edinburgh and Bath. Artist-in-Residence at V&A London, Luton Museum, and the counties of Wiltshire and Somerset (UK), and Santarem (Portugal); commissions include Denver Museum of Childhood (USA), Chanel, Conran, and Coldplay. Her work features in Creating Spaces: The History of the Bath Schools of Art & Design.
Public commissions include sculptures in St. Peter’s Place, Salisbury; The National Forest (Leicestershire); Cotswold Wildlife Park (Gloucestershire); Basingstoke; Stratford-upon-Avon; and the Denver Museum of Childhood (USA), with sculptural installations for Conran and Chanel in London, Manchester, and Dublin.
Julieann often works in partnership with her husband, gardener and poet Nick Hood. Projects include the acclaimed ‘Flowery Meads’ installation in the grounds of the beautiful Watermill Theatre, Newbury and a series of living sculptures for Conkers, the National Forest visitor centre in Leicestershire.
Cross-disciplinary collaborations with Kneehigh Theatre Company and the Watermill Theatre have led to numerous indoor and outdoor installations, events, objects, and performance costumes. She continues to explore shaping sound through the language of sculpture: creating evolving installations in Bath and pieces for Coldplay for international performances in 2019, 2021 and 2022.
As an artist educator, Julieann has devised and led projects in schools, museums, galleries and communities, nationally and internationally. She has held the positions of Head of Education at Roche Court Educational Trust (New Art Centre, Wiltshire) and Contemporary Arts Practice lecturer and subject leader at Bath Spa University, plus many artist-in-residence posts, including in Kerala (India), Santarem (Portugal) and at the V&A (London). She has given numerous talks on her work and creative engagement, including at the Natural History Museum, London, for Insect Odyssey, Berlinische Galerie (Berlin), for the British Council, at the V&A for the International Museums Education Conference, at the Victoria Art Gallery (Bath), the Crafts Council, NSEAD National Conference and online for The Being Human Festival. In December 2022, as a member of the Multisensory Art Project Team, she received the national Marsh Award for Excellence in Visual Arts Engagement.
Her work is held in public and private collections and features in Graham McLaren’s publication Creating Spaces: The History of the Bath Schools of Art & Design (Wunderkammer Press, 2020), Shadowlands (Drawing Correspondence, 2024), and Brink (Shadowlands II, 2025).
