By Miles Hilton
Angela Caley has been everywhere in the Chautauqua County art scene this past year. You may have seen the 2023 Chautauqua Prize award last summer, which she designed and painted, or you may have attended one of her major group shows in Jamestown or Westfield. Maybe you saw a banner featuring her artwork in downtown Jamestown, part of the inaugural ArtScapes exhibition. Or maybe you attended the Crary Art Gallery’s ANF100 exhibition in Warren, Pennsylvania, where her painting of Rim Rock received an honorable mention.
This summer, Caley will appear on two larger-scale platforms: Cut+Paste magazine’s Landscapes issue, and a 2-week residency at the Saltonstall foundation, just outside of Ithaca. “I applied for it 9, 10 years ago and didn’t get in”, she says, but she was encouraged to apply again and made the cut for this October’s residency. “I’m the only Chautauqua County artist that’s ever gotten in”, she shares, “so I definitely encourage others from our area to apply”. The Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts “supports New York State artists and writers” through juried and self-directed residencies.
of New York State and/or one of the Indian Nations located therein. Their
residencies are designed for those looking for a quiet, supportive environment
in which to focus on their craft. They are located at 435 Ellis Hollow Creek Rd
in Ithaca, NY 14850
Caley hasn’t decided what the focus of her residency will be, but says she’s “not afraid the ideas won’t come”. Given the breadth and quantity of her work, that’s probably a safe bet. In the past few years, Caley has gravitated towards landscape, surrealist, and self-portrait painting in oil, using a limited palette reminiscent of the American SouthWest. She often works on panels of wood, and intersperses zones of pointillist ink drawing among areas worked in oil paint. This style “definitely emerged during COVID”, when Caley says she was “unable to schedule gallery shows, so I had all this time without deadlines to spend as much time on each piece as I felt like I wanted to”. She describes her style as “ever-evolving”, depending at various times on factors such as the amount of time she had, and how much money she had for supplies.
Although she’s now a professional artist, Caley has “never completed a painting class” and has learned by practicing art, which she started doing when she was a child. “I often never feel fully understood even by the people closest to me, so I have always made art as a form of self-soothing, to express how I see the world” she shares, “art has been my therapy and the way I try to connect with other people”. A distinct sense of alone-ness emerges throughout our conversation, and is evident in Caley’s work. Her landscapes are devoid of human or animal life, and her surrealist pieces, which often feature stylized figures that resemble the artist, evoke feelings of loneliness, searching, and isolation.
Caley confirms this interpretation with a wry chuckle, saying “I’ve just been alone my whole life.” “I say that my work is my internal struggles combined with my external influences” she continues. These ‘external influences’ often come from the natural world: Caley has worked part-time as a landscaper for two decades and is an avid hiker.
Of the financial side of her work, Caley says “I sell work, but it’s hit or miss. My work is so personal, that’s a hard sell sometimes”. She has a healthy detachment from responses to her sometimes-unsettling work, saying “if people enjoy it or they’re bothered by it, it’s all success to me.” She’s maintained a strong focus on her art since the early 2000’s, but says she’s been “putting in 70-plus hours a week of painting” in the past year. “I like being a sober, hard-working artist,” she laughs, “it’s good to have focus.”
Caley shows no signs of slowing down. You can keep up to date with her work on her Instagram, @angelacaleyart, and some of her work is available for purchase at the Chautauqua Art Gallery in Jamestown, which represents her.