Judy Rush - Fiber Artist & Interactive Felted Bowl Art
Judy Rush is a nationally and internationally recognized artist. Her work has been shown in numerous venues including The Kansas Art Institute, Ohio Craft Museum, The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Columbus Museum of Art, and Quilt National, a highly competitive juried art quilt show. She has won numerous awards and has had a number of solo shows. Her work is represented in many private collections around the country. She works primarily in fiber but dabbles in art making all the time.
Using the fibonacci series to develop her compositions, she uses art to navigate through the vague and unknown world of energy transfer, the mystical world and the physical world. She works on the hunch that the masters used the mathematical fibonacci series in their compositional structures to create balance and structure but also used it to camouflage alternate messages. While it is not Judy’s intent to hide messages in her work, she recognizes that people bring their own history into the experience of an art work. Judy expects that the viewer will find their own meaning revealed in her work.
“I believe fabric is a fundamental feminine transfer material. A nurturing medium, women have swaddled their babies in some sort of fabric to comfort them and provide safety. While a mother snuggles her swaddled baby, she transfers love, hope, joy and warmth into the fibers that surround her child. Who doesn’t find attractive a blanket given to you by a loved one? We carry this need for acceptance, for hope and love into our adult lives. My work reflects this theory. I work intuitively. I am interested in exploring my experiences as well as the
experiences that were handed down to me from my ancestors in the form of behaviors and beliefs. Doing this work is therapeutic. Questions arise, I process through them in the work and the issue seems to resolve itself.”
Contact July Rush at www.judyrush.com
Felted Bowl Interactive Art - Come Roll around in the field in a GIANT Felted Ball (various times throughout the day)
Felting is the process of using many single wool or wool like fibers, adding moisture (water) and soap along with agitation. The process of felting allows the fibers to connect on a molecular level.
I find it endlessly fascinating how we can take the limited abilities of a single wool fiber about 4” to 5” long, combine them with other fibers and make a strong, almost indestructible (and water resistant) material.
I am making Giant Felted Bowls. These felted bowls are made by felting a layer of fiber around a flat shape resist shape made of a non-feltable material like plastic. When the fiber has felted enough, the resist is removed and the bowl can then be shaped. I am making these so people can climb inside and play. I have no preconceived ideas on how these bowls will be utilized by whom ever chooses to roll around in it. I am interested in how the person in the bowl chooses to use it and how the person and bowl interact with one another.
Below is an example of one of the felted balls that Judy is bringing to Rootwire this year. Crawl in, find your vibe, and let it roll.....
Judy and the balls will be roaming around the fields of Rootwire throughout the weekend....LET'S PLAY!!
