My mother, Betty Rush, never thought of herself as an artist, and yet she amassed a large body of work. Her greatest challenge was being a wife. During the 1960s when she and the other women in this country were waking up to what it means to become "liberated," she figured out that being somebody's wife was sometimes a little "dreary!"

She loved my father but sometimes she felt she had not accomplished much with her life because all she had to show for her efforts was a pile of pillows.

After her death earlier this year, my first instinct was to find people who loved my mom and would want to "adopt" one or two of her pillows. But after attending an art show by a watercolor artist, I realized my mother was an artist too. Her medium was needle art, displayed in those pillows. They constituted her "body of work."

Please browse the Betty Rush Artwork page and the Betty Rush Philosophies page.

Below are photos of Mom as she appeared at various ages, while doing her needle art. The center photo shows her entering The Weaver's Cottage, where she helped others learn the needle art that interested them, and coordinated crafts classes by various teachers.       - Cynthia Rush