Mary Tooley Parker was interviewed by Angela Cappetta about her work and her solo show at Viridian. Congratulations, Mary!
Contemporary Artist Interview
Mary’s work is magnificent. She has been on my radar for years. I finally got the courage up to ask her to be interviewed for my ongoing Contemporary Artist Series. I hope you adore her work as much as I do.
After a career in dance, and then in art production, Mary Tooley Parker left New York City to pursue a more rural lifestyle in Vermont. After her relocation, Mary then began pursuing an interest in textile art. Eventually, this led her to the indigenous American folk art of hook rugs. In Mary’s case, they weren’t exactly rugs, though. Through using yarn, thread and fabric to make her pieces, her beautiful textile compositions have been exhibited nationally. She is one of my fellow NYFA fellows, having been awarded her Fellowship by the New York Foundation for the Arts just a few years after mine, which I earned for my project Glendalis Subsequently, she even served as a panel juror for NYFA in 2018.