We recently connected with Elody Gyekis and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Elody, thanks for joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

“It takes creativity to make a creative career work”. I like to tell this to creatives that are trying to make the switch to earning a living from their creative work. It is not like most professions where there are specific credentials and a tried and true path to get there. In the creative world, we each have to forge our own path and cobble together our own existence. I also like to tell people not to expect their most creative work to support them financially right away, and that having multiple income streams is usually a good idea. I earn a full-time living from a variety of types of creative work that engage my artistic side to various levels. I have made a living as an artist for almost twenty years now, and it has been exciting and challenging and multifaceted from day 1. I teach classes and workshops, I do large scale public art commissions that engage community, and I do not turn up my nose at the occasional pet portrait or logo design. I also make my own artwork that I exhibit and sell at galleries and other venues. That final category has never been all of my income, but the percentage of the different kinds of work ebb and flow. It works for me, I love my life, and I love being employed and expressing my creativity. I also enjoy the diversity of my work. It feeds me. The studio art is very solitary and peaceful, and the teaching and community work are very social and I love empowering others. I don’t think I would ever want to not have some of both in my life, they balance each-other. But everyone has to find their own balance. My advice is to let not put all of your eggs in once basket or expect instant financial success… keep whatever part time steady work you can and let your creative side grow slowly and organically until it takes over. I started doing the public art projects while I was in college, never expecting it to lead to real income or job security, but I was able to get mural jobs right out of college that I could take on and keep some income flowing to cover me when I was not selling art. Selling art is unpredictable and not dependable, so this took the pressure off and allowed me to have that income be erratic.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am an artist, teaching artist, and community artist. But here, I will talk about my teaching. I have always known that I love to teach art. I get so excited when a student has a breakthrough moment, achieving new understanding and skills. I have been teaching all kinds of classes and workshops, independently and through other organizations, for all of my adult life. Right now, I teach online classes for the Continuing Education Program at the New York Academy of the Arts. Additionally, I have started a semi-private mentorship group where I work with small number of students who are independently working on self-guided projects of their own choice. I give them feedback and guidance, do brainstorming with them, create custom demos to help them solve their problems, and critique their in-progress pieces. My favorite thing is to strategize with them through the transition between an idea in their minds and starting the final pieces. There are so many ways to prepare a composition. I like teaching my more technique related classes, but this kind of problem solving with my students is so fun and rewarding.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

There are so many things I love about being an artist and living a creative life. I love the excitement of a new idea, the challenge of figuring out a new material or medium, I love the flow-state of deep concentration while creating a painting. Most of us do not become artists realizing that that means we will also have to learn to be entrepreneurs, and I won’t deny that there have been some series growing pains around that, but I also love the power and control I have over my life as a self-employed person. I work hard, but I make my own schedule and set my own terms. It requires discipline and organization, but there is such a feeling freedom and relief having the ability to set my own boundaries.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think there are a lot of exciting things that are happening in the art world right now, in terms of direct connections between artists and collectors. It is long past time that we all thoroughly bust the myth that art collecting is only for super fancy super rich people who buy art for millions of dollars at Christies auctions or really high end galleries. Everyone who can can afford to eat out once in awhile can afford real art if they want to. Now, largely thanks to social media, you can find and follow emerging artists whose work they love and buy directly from them, even if it is a small limited edition print. Unfortunately, many of these things are unfortunately also tied to the troublesome aspects of social media, such as ever-changing algorithms and such making it harder to reach your audience at times. When you particularly love an artist’s work that you want to maintain a connection with, sign up for their email list. Most of us are not spammy at all, we will just tell you if we have any upcoming exhibitions or online sales. That way even if the socials change, you will get to see them grow and know about opportunities to collect their work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://elodyg.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elodygyekis/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elodygyekis
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ElodyGyekis

Image Credits
All photos by Elody Gyekis.