JILLIAN HISHAW

Visual Artist | Poet | Photographer | Environmental Storyteller

ARTISTIC PRACTICE
Multidisciplinary artist working across oil and acrylic painting, photography, poetry, spoken word, and environmental storytelling. Her evolving body of work, Land, Law, Loss, explores land, law, agriculture, ownership, human emotion, resilience, and the relationship between people and the natural environment.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS, PROGRAMS & ARTISTIC RECOGNITION

2026 | Selected Artist, 3rd Annual Root 2 Fruit Festival
Cira Green with Forbidden Fruit, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Eating Crow, Oil Painting
Selected for exhibition at the August 2026 Root 2 Fruit Festival.

2023 | Participating Poet, Writing the Land
Nature Culture Project
Participated in Writing the Land, a project connecting poets with protected lands and using poetry to deepen awareness of conservation, place, nature, and the human relationship with land.

2017 | Attorney & Artist Exhibit *Forgot Exact Title and Year
Art Exhibited
North Carolina Central University School of Law
Durham, North Carolina

2015 | Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation Grant, Arts & Agriculture Program
Family Agriculture Resource Management Services, South Carolina
Received grant support for an arts and agricultural storytelling initiative bringing rural agricultural history into South Carolina schools through photography, film, and storytelling.

2014 | Photographer, Writer & Project Creator, Photo Storytelling Farm Project
In partnership with Pee Dee Land Trust, South Carolina
Created a documentary storytelling project featuring Black farmers in South Carolina’s Pee Dee region. Interviewed and photographed farmers and documented the generational histories of their family farms. The resulting work was developed into a traveling art exhibition and featured at the Florence County Library.

2010 | Honorable Mention, Photography
Jackson County Soil & Water Conservation District
Taylor Scared of Horse
Received Honorable Mention in the agricultural and conservation photography competition.

2008 to 2010 | Missouri State Coordinator, River of Words
Coordinated Missouri participation in the environmental arts and poetry program. Led workshops, partnered with educators across the state, encouraged student art and poetry submissions, secured exhibition space, coordinated student recognition and prizes, and supported outreach and promotion.

2008 | Featured Spoken Word Artist, American Jazz Museum
Kansas City, Missouri
Selected as a featured spoken word artist to perform original poetry accompanied by jazz.

2007 to 2009 | City Literary Arts Coach, Brave New Voices
Kansas City, Missouri
Coached and supported teens participating in Brave New Voices, the international youth poetry slam and festival. In 2008, the Kansas City team advanced to the semifinals at the national competition in Washington, D.C.

2007 | Teen Spoken Word Coordinator, Kansas City Public Library
Kansas City, Missouri
Coordinated spoken word programming and an open mic event for area teenagers in partnership with the Kansas City Public Library.