Artist Statement:

A Quiet Evolution

Judy Rush

At 68, I find myself amid a quiet evolution—one that has taken a lifetime to begin. This body of work is both a reckoning and a release, shaped by a growing awareness of how patriarchal systems defined womanhood, value, and visibility on terms not my own. I’m only now beginning to understand the cost of what I wasn’t told—about power, belonging, and the fullness of being. Much of my life was spent in a world that encouraged me to be small, agreeable, and invisible. That invisibility became a kind of superpower —a way to survive—but it also distanced me from my own voice. These pieces are my attempt to speak from that place: not loudly, but clearly.

My work explores the quiet labor of reclaiming selfhood through aging, reflection, and the search for home. I’ve never had a home that was entirely my own—to choose, shape, and decorate just for me. That absence has become a lens through which I ask: What does home truly mean? Is it safety, autonomy, or something I can now build for myself? The constructed walls and surreal plants in my work reflect that search for shelter and growth.

Small transparent dolls appear throughout, each embodying quiet acts of becoming—resting, reading, creating, offering. The materials in the work are layered, humble, and intentional. Like the life I am shaping, they carry contradictions: vulnerability and strength, rootedness and reach.

A Quiet Evolution is not a single act of defiance, but a steady turning toward truth. It is the calm resistance of becoming visible in a world that often looks away. In this quiet, I hope others might recognize something of their voice, too.

This project is funded by a grant from the Greater Columbus Arts Council.