For Immediate Release: August 1, 2016
Contact: Barbara Poole
160 Western Ave. Loft 207, Lowell, MA 01851
barbip@yahoo.com Phone: 617-306- 9628 Web: www.bfelt.com
“Veils of Color for Lowell, the Venice of America” Art Installation
Dyers Building, Pawtucket Canal, Lowell, MA
On view through October 2016
Lowell, Ma: Artist Barbara Poole has created Veils of Color for Lowell, the Venice of America,
a massive art installation in an Industrial Canyon of the mill lined Pawtucket Canal in the heart of downtown Lowell.
Once a thriving hub of 1890s industrial textile activity with deafening crescendos of hundreds of
shuttles flying back and forth on the looms, the watery canyon today is home to ducks and the
occasional tourist filled Lowell National Historical Park canal boat. The mills lining the canal
canyon are now filled with loft-living artists, entrepreneurs, businesses and restaurants.
Tourists ease through the Swamp Locks by boat and come upon a ghostly façade of windows and
the architectural remants of the Dyers Building, part of the Appleton Mills. In the 1890s,
thousands of yards of pristine white fabric were dyed the fashionable hues of the times. These
large vats of dye would be unceremoniously dumped into the Pawtucket Canal creating a flowing
tribute to color.
The installation, Veils of Color for Lowell, the Venice of America, is a tribute and visual
depiction of the function of the dye house. Poole hand painted thirty-five, 18’ x 5’ veils in
modern color. The colors chosen are based on the contemporary color wheel. The first veils
viewed when entering the canyon are be the primary colors, moving into the secondary colors,
complimentary, tertiary, analogous, triads and finally, joyously, the exuberant quads. Painting
the panels was quite challenging because their size and her painting technique required that they
be painted in mid-air.
Barbara has a Masters in Art Education from the Mass College of Art and Design, and a
Bachelor of Fine Arts from Tufts University and the Museum School of Fine Arts. She is the
owner and designer for her company B. Felt, for which she designs and manufactures by hand,
one at time, beautiful felted garments and accessories.
Barbara’s work can be seen in galleries and museum shops nationally and internationally. She
lives and works out of her loft at Western Avenue Studios in Lowell.
Veils will be up till the LNHP canal boat tours stop running in October 2016. The installation
will reappear in 2017 for the entire tour season.
