Limited edition set of a miniature folding accordion “book” reproducing the 12 painting collaboration I did in collaboration with artist Joanne Landis.

The booklet is 4” by 3” when folded and comes in a clear plastic protective case. When fully open, it measures 40 inches long.

The fourth image of the booklets shows two books that I turned into handmade “hardcover” books by wrapping two pieces of cardboard in pretty paper and then gluing to the ends of a booklet. You are welcome to do this to yours, but the books do not come this way. Consider it a “serving suggestion” image! The remaining images are of the actual paintings.

This series of paintings showed at the Bellefonte Art Museum, the Susquehanna Art Museum, and is currently on semi-permanant loan at the Pajama Factory in Williamsport. More about the collaboration below.

Persephone / Persephone

Persephone / Persephone is a show of multi-panel collaborative paintings by Joanne Landis and Elody Gyekis. They layer paint on each other’s work and engage in a creative back and forth exchange. Trading roles of both artist and Persephone, they explore the themes of birth and death, love and renewal, separation and reuniting, mothers and daughters, and the seasons of the year. Joanne and Elody both celebrate the power of women and explore diverse feminine mythologies and archetypes in their own art. Together, they build each piece on a foundation of mutual trust and respect, exploring the alchemical magic of collaboration.

These twelve paintings inspired by Persephone’s story are supported in freestanding frames that surround the viewer in a large semicircle. The wooden standing frames were designed and built by woodworker Gary Gyekis from local white pine and maple. The story is told in three stages: her happy childhood with her goddess mother Demeter, their separation when Persephone is taken into the underworld, and their joyous reunion and the return of Spring. The works were created on three large canvas rolls that were traded back and forth between Joanne in Pennsylvania and Elody in New York over one full year. The collaboration was intuitive and direct, their strokes of paint surrounding and overlapping each other until each section felt complete.

The idea for this show began to germinate after Elody and Joanne’s first year-long collaboration for the exhibit “Call and Response” at the Factory Works Gallery at the Pajama Factory in Williamsport, PA in March of 2018. The collaborative works were paintings begun by one and traded halfway through, finished by the other. Each time they did this, the process became more challenging and the results became more exciting. After that experience, both knew they wanted to take their collaborative process farther. They began plans to create something larger, more complex, and more intimately intertwined. Thus Persephone / Persephone took root.

Though thier independent work is aesthetically very different, both artists explore similar ideas. Both celebrate the power of women and their stories and use a diversity of visual symbols and mythologies inspired by their experiences and travels. To collaborate, they each must relinquish full control of the artworks. Furthermore, they each have to find balance between their different strengths and step outside their comfort zones. Elody is challenged by Joanne’s bold, intuitive spontaneity and the absolute confidence and strength exuded by her work, and Joanne by Elody’s thoughtfulness, careful execution, and realism. By joining their two different yet equally powerful female voices in one story, a magical synergy occurs that transcends the individual work of both artists.