Caney comes from several generations of priests and musicians and so grew up surrounded by theology and creativity. This led to his introduction to drawing as soon as he could hold a pencil, and an early fascination with stories of religion, mythology, and fantasy. His artistic practice quickly developed into an obsessive pursuit of realism, beginning when he was 5 with meticulously copying pictures of animals from National Geographic. That pursuit of realism (and love of depicting animals) has not abated, but the boundaries have shifted with the presence of a secondary effort; defining realism with space for the imagined, the subconscious, and the divine. Towards this end, Caney first brings imagined scenes to life in highly detailed realism, then breaks that sense of reality apart with surreal symbols, glowing light, and illusory color. Through this he attempts to highlight the miraculous in the everyday and capture the simple humanity woven into the divine.
