The Artist Who Never Spoke a Word
A Beautiful Story of Self-Expression
Judith Scott was the artist who never spoke a word. Not one word in her entire life. Her story popped up in a Huffington Post article on Sept. 06, 2016. Judith’s story is told by her sister, Joyce.
Judith and Joyce Scott were born on May 1, 1943 in Columbus, OH as fraternal twins. However, Judith was born with the chromosome for Down Syndrome. As Joyce tells it, her sister never spoke, but they didn’t need words. They managed adventures, games, and rituals with rules that were never spoken. Joyce, in that innocent way of kids, never even knew her sister had a disability until she saw other people treating Judith differently.
When the girls were 7, Judith was sent off to an institute. Her Down Syndrome coupled with undiagnosed deafness led experts to declare Judith “uneducable”. Joyce says that when they visited, conditions were always horrible. There was serious overcrowding, some kids didn’t have shoes, some didn’t have clothes. Many were left to writhe and twitch in their own misery. It was an unfortunate sign of the times for institutions back then.
Judy Scott. Photo – Huffington Post
It wasn’t until many years later that Joyce became Judith’s legal guardian after she had been basically alone in institutions for 23 years. “And now I understand: our connection, how important it was,” Joyce said, “how together we felt each piece of our world, how she tasted her world and seemed to breathe in its colors and shapes, how we carefully observed and delicately touched everything as we felt our way through each day.” It wasn’t long after that that Joyce enrolled Judith in a program called, Creative Growth even though she had never outwardly expressed any interest in the arts.
Judith Scott. Photo – Huffington Post
What happened next was nothing short of remarkable. After having tried various forms of art, Judith met fiber artist, Sylvia Seventy and that’s when Judith began weaving. She started off scavenging random, everyday objects and weaving colorful string around them. The first piece of Judith’s work that Joyce saw was two identical figures tied together, joined as one. “I immediately understand that she knows us as twins, together, two bodies joined as one. And I weep,” says Joyce.
Judith Scott. Photo – Huffington Post
From then on, Judith had a voracious appetite for making her art. She worked eight hours a day, engulfing objects of all sorts in intricate colorful webs of string and thread, even paper towels if nothing else was available. “Along with her visual language,” Joyce says, “Judith spoke through dramatic gestures, colorful scarves, and pantomimed kisses, which she would generously bestow on her completed sculptures as if they were her children.” It didn’t take long for Judith’s work to become recognized and shown in galleries and museums around the world.
In 2005, at 61 years old, Judith passed away, having outlived medical life expectancy by 49 years. Oddly enough, her last sculpture was all black. According to Joyce, everything she ever created was full of vibrant color. It was as though Judith knew it would be her last and was predicting her impending death. She passed peacefully in her sleep.
Judith Scott. Photo – Huffington Post
So who was Judith Scott? What was she thinking? Was she happy? Even Joyce said that she can’t be sure. But if her expressions, gestures, and the way her hands would fly through the air while she was working was any indication, the latter part of her life at least, was happy and fulfilling.
In June of this year, 2016, I wrote a post about artists with developmental disabilities. In it I discussed how art gives voice to those who have difficulty expressing themselves. Judith Scott is another example of an artist who never spoke a word, but was able to express herself beautifully, colorfully, and vibrantly through her art.
Recent Comments