Stacey Farley has been making ceramic art for over 25 years. Her work has been installed at train stations, museums, gardens and parks, on walls, floors, fireplaces, and tables. Her work reflects the environment, community, history and architecture of the site where the art is installed. The tiles are handcrafted using ancient and modern techniques to create timeless tile art installations meant to last for generations. The techniques include photographic transfers, hand-painting, three-dimensional bas relief, silkscreen and sculptural mosaics, resulting in murals that are functional and durable.
Stacey Farley's public work uses the medium of ceramic tile to depict historical stories; they are about ordinary people doing everyday things. The themes are universal and about humanity- they are about work, change, progress, technology and invention. Her work depicts the lives of folks, the things they do, the objects they make and the community they live in. Her work documents eras gone by, often in small rural communities, as all of America once was before the advent of the railroad. The visual stories are about the workers, the builders, the track layers of the railroad, the dairy farmers, the store owners, the foundry workers, the seamstresses-all the men and women who built this land with their hands.
Transportation is a theme throughout many of her murals. There are examples of horses with plows, horses and carriages, carousel horses, people on horseback, early automobiles, ferries, and "the iron horse"-- the mighty steam locomotive. The American story of the building of the railroad figures prominently at several train stations where Farley's work is located.
Stacey Farley also works in wood, paint and other materials, including leaves. She holds a BA from Brown University and a MFA from the University of Illinois in Chicago. She has been commissioned by public agencies such as NJ Transit, Palisades Park Commission, Metropolitan Transit Authority, and the New York Thruway Authority. Farley works and resides in the Hudson Valley.
