The Widlund Gallery at Tannery Pond Center presents Shifting Sources by Charlene Leary & Joy Muller-McCoola
Tuesday | September 25 - Saturday | November 4
Gallery Hours: Tues – Fri, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM | Sat, 12:00 - 4:00 PM | additional hours by appointment
Reception: September 29 | 5-7 PM
This fiber partnership between felter and weaver brought us to discuss what we have in common. We source our inspiration and our materials from the natural world. Fibers from animals and plants require feeding, growing, processing, and dyeing. Each stage of production requires water, our precious resource.
Increased awareness of this essential element has brought about an awareness of the methods of conserving and recycling water. Using local sources for wool that is sustainably raised and making dyes from plants that grow around us are two of the many ways we’ve shifted our material sources.
Charlene Leary’s fiber work for body and home incorporates interpretations of natural elements. Her hand woven, hand dyed and sculpted fabrics are often enhanced with vintage cloth, shibori, printing, and felting to create contemporary, hand made cloth for one-of-a-kind designs.
Her love for fiber grew from her mother and grandmother’s fondness for knitting, crocheting and sewing, which they introduced to Charlene during her childhood in New Hampshire. Her appreciation of nature, a focal point of much of her work, developed from their frequent family outings to the ocean, the White Mountains, and summers at Great East Lake.
Charlene found her expressive voice in fiber when she was introduced to weaving as part of her occupational therapy training in 1970. Shortly after moving to NY in 1973 to practice O.T., Leary has continued her creative goals in weaving and other fiber media. During her 30 years in the fiber arts she has studied with notable instructors including Lia Cook, Catherine Ellis, Joan Morris and Polly Sterling.
Leary has taught weaving and surface design and exhibited her artwork throughout Northern New York and New England. She has appeared on TV8, participated in the Arts in Education Program, and presented at the Hyde and Chapman Museums, Emmaus House and the American Sewing Guild.
Charlene is a member of the Hudson-Mohawk Weavers’ Guild and has been published in Handwoven Magazine. Using fiber to capture the energy of the Adirondack Mountains around her studio, Leary hopes that her work strikes a visual dialogue with others in her desire to interpret the diversity of nature.
Joy Muller-McCoola works with wool using the ancient process of wet felting. The sculptural possibilities of wool, its capacity to become fabric and form simultaneously, and its tactile properties are a draw of the medium.
Joy grew up near the Atlantic Ocean, which created an intense love and respect for water. Her work is influenced by environmental water issues including flooding, aridification, and algal bloom. Several of her pieces tour as part of Wool & Water, a traveling group of fiber pieces that bring attention to water issues in the Adirondacks.
Joy holds a BA from NYU and an MS from SUNY Albany. She worked as an art teacher in the public schools for over 35 years and delighted in sharing a variety of media. Felting became her personal medium of choice in 2011. She has shown at The Hyde Collection, Schweinfurth Art Center, Albany Center Gallery, Worcester Center for Crafts, View Center for Arts and Culture, Lake Placid Center for the Arts and more.