She also organizes and creates large-scale community murals and is a resident artist at the Green Drake Gallery in Millheim, PA. Elody Gyekis was born in Lewisburg, PA and grew up in Penns Valley. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Ceramics from Penn State with honors in Visual Arts and Civic and Community Engagement and minors in Sociology and Civic and Community Engagement. Her
artwork includes painting, drawing, ceramics, sculpture, apparel, graphic design, and photography. She is currently a resident artist at the Green Drake Gallery and Arts Center. In addition to fine art work, she has been a Community Arts Organizer and Mural Painter for nine murals across Pennsylvania, located in State College, Harrisburg, Williamsport, and Huntingdon. She has also worked on various other community projects, including a small mural in an orphanage in the Dominican Republic and her current project in Toms River, New Jersey. Her Fine Art has been exhibited across the country in cities such as Tucson, AZ, Syracuse, NY, Philadelphia, PA and in the Capital Building in Harrisburg, PA. Elody’s public work and studio art feed off of each other, as do the 2 and 3D work, in a constant and growing collaborative conversation. Her work plays with the juxtaposition of various objects, characters and scenes while exploring scale, narrative, and composition. Through processes like these, she work to recreate the textures of her life—transporting herself and the viewer to somewhere entirely new that is at once foreign and familiar. Her art thrives in a reflexive relationship with the world around her and is at its best when she is not simply drawing from what she sees, but participating in the process that creates not only her art, but its inspiration as well. Learn more about Elody from Patty Satalia’s radio interview as part of the PA People series: http://wpsu.org/radio/single_entry/LL-3485/papeople, or by visiting her website: elodyg.com. All images on this page are the property of Elody Gyekis and may not be used without her permission.