I Choose To Love You In Silence

Artist Statement for Sean Rush: “I Choose to Love You in Silence”

Sean Rush’s painting merges portraiture and Persian script, layering an evocative profile against Rumi’s stirring verse:

“I choose to love you in silence, for in silence I find no rejection.
I choose to love you in loneliness, for in loneliness no one owns you but me.
I choose to adore you from a distance, for distance will shield me from pain.
I choose to kiss you in the wind, for the wind is gentler than my lips.
I choose to hold you in my dreams, for in my dreams, you have no end.”

Rush explores love defined by restraint. The subject’s serene profile, rendered in warm, coffee-stained tones, embodies distance and devotion. The Farsi script overlays the figure, blurring between presence and absence.

Rush blends translucent washes and coffee-toned textures to transform the portrait into a meditation on silent longing. The overlay of script and soft profile evokes restraint and emotional depth.

This work invites reflection on quiet love-felt in solitude, sustained by distance, yet enduring beyond rejection or time.