Karen Atkinson: President and Founder
 

Karen runs this project as her current art practice, think of it as beyond social media and relational aesthetics. The goal of this project is to make life better for artists.

Karen Atkinson is a media, installation, public artist, independent curator, and collaborator. Atkinson has published and guest edited a number of publications. Exhibiting and curating internationally, Atkinson's work has been shown in South Africa, Australia, Europe, Mexico, Canada, throughout the USA, and in the Fifth Havana Biennial in Cuba and the 2011 Biennale de Paris. She has a Ted Talk on hybrid careers for artists at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IehUM7XxJNU

In 1991, she was a co-founding director of Side Street Projects, a non-profit artist-run organization in Los Angeles, which continues to thrive now in Pasadena. Atkinson has held a faculty position at CalArts since 1988, teaching Foundation Seminar, Context Revolt (addressing installation, public and net art), and her renowned Getting Your Sh*t Together class. She has taught workshops for over 20 years, both regionally and nationally, for organizations like the California and Boston Lawyers for the Arts, Side Street Projects, The National Association of Arts Organizations, and dozens of additional artist-run spaces and non-profits.

Karen created the GYST software for artists from scratch and in 2000 she founded GYST as an artist-run professional practices service company. Currently, Atkinson chooses to focus on making life better for artists and less on exhibiting her own work.

In her spare time she serves on Boards and Advisory Boards of local and national arts organizations, advises artists on their careers, and tries to get into as much art trouble as possible. To view some of Karen’s projects visit karenatkinsonstudio.org

Tucker Neel: Vice President/Coeditor of Artists*At Work
 
Tucker directs GYST's overall marketing, PR, sales and advertising program. He co-teaches GYST’s Spring and Fall classes, the GYST Critique Class, and is also the co-editor of Artists*At Work, GYST's blog and newsletter. Please direct all sales, marketing, PR, and editorial inquiries to him.

Tucker Neel is an artist, writer, curator, and gallery director in Los Angeles, CA. Neel’s art investigates the production of political allegiance, memory, and collective experience. To view his complete projects please visit tuckerneel.com Neel holds an MFA from Otis College of Art & Design and a BA in Art History and Visual Arts from Occidental College.

He is currently an Associate Professor in the Communication Arts and Liberal Arts & Sciences departments at Otis College of Art & Design. He is a Contributing Editor for Artillery Magazine in Los Angeles, CA and his writings have also appeared in Art Lies Magazine, ARTPULSE Magazine, the LA Alternative Press, and X-Tra Magazine. You can read these writings at tuckerneel.wordpress.com.

Neel is also the Director & Founder of 323 Projects, a telephone-based art gallery. To visit 323 Projects simply call (323) 843-4652 anytime, day or night, to hear audio art. For more information visit 323projects.com.www.tuckerneel.wordpress.com

Monica Hicks: Operations Manager

Monica Elayne Hicks is an educator, writer, event planner, and accessory guru living and working in the Los Angeles area. Monica focuses on her traditional drawing skills coupled with basic 'science' and curiosity of surface characteristics to describe her perspective and lack of experience as a woman of color in American society through the photographic history of her ethnicity. Her works are about the paradigm between integration and difference.

Her education is based in biochemistry with an emphasis in pathology, but holds a BA in Studio Arts from the University of California, Irvine and an MFA in Visual Art from the California Institute of the Arts. She has an arsenal of skills, including and not limited to: acoustic shower singing, couture fashion accessories, 1970's slang, and interior design (making a small apartment look huge). If you are not a jive turkey and you want to view Hicks' work, visit MonicaElayne.com

Susan Petrella: Director, Book Sales

Susan L. Petrella, MBA, is a strategic thinker, analyst, branding expert, who's led multimillion$ entrepreneurial endeavors, 2 - 45 person teams, for public (social enterprise, academia, Top US Arts Institution) and proviate organizations (Fortune 50, Fortune 500, Corporate $200M+, small business)

Currently, she Creative Director, Creative Orange County, a "think tank" @ the intersection of culture, commerce and community. Vision is to empower, engage Orange County, CA to be a "Creative" Community Showcase via partnerships and collaborations with like minded individuals and organizations. For more information visit www.creativeorangecounty.com

Chris Reynolds: Director of Marketing

Christopher directs GYST's overall marketing. He co-teaches GYST’s workshops and is also co-editor of Artists*At Work, GYST's blog and newsletter. Please direct all marketing, inquiries to him.

Christopher Reynolds is an artist living and working in Los Angeles. He received his BA in Fine Art at the University of Southern California and his MFA at the California Institute of the Arts. Reynolds’ current body of work examines our relationship to food. More importantly, he investigates the relationship to ourselves and each other with food as the catalyst. Reynolds’ work includes viewer-activated sculptures, installations, performances, and documentation to understand who we are through what we eat and how we eat it. By presenting the work with both socially-engaged performances and installations along with inflicted visceral responses of hunger, satiation, pleasure,and pain, Reynolds wants the viewer to challenge their perception of food as merely a means of sustenance. Instead, He desires his participating audience to understand the significance and socially-constructed power of food that molds our cultural, political, and economic positions in this world. You can view Christopher Reynolds' work at http://www.christopherreynoldsstudio.com

Calvin Lee: Archive Technician, Documentation

Calvin Lee is a conceptual-based photographer from Boston, MA. He recently received his MFA in 2009 from California Institute of the Arts in the Photography & Media program; and a BFA in Visual & Critical studies and photography from School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2007. Calvin works mainly in photography, sculpture, and installation. His work combines intelligence and humor to explores the connectivity of images, the repression within representation, and the rhetoric/visual semiotics of an image. His analytical, emotional, and experiential practice deals with multiple theory based discourses in conversation that questions technology, culture, representation, and language. His work has been exhibited in Boston as well as recently in Los Angeles.

Calvin's specializes in fine art/editorial contemporary photography and provides skills in artwork/gallery documentation, portraits, scanning, photo retouching, and digital archiving. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

Elleni Sclavenitis: Video Editing and Web Design
 
Elleni Sclavenitis is an artist and filmmaker. Her work reframes historical events through the lens of the subjective, and examines the interconnection of the historical, the socio-political and the personal. Elleni grew up in Denver, Colorado and now lives in Los Angeles. In between, she spent several years in Paris where she worked as an artist and graphic designer. She received her BFA from Art Center College of Design and her MFA from CalArts.

Michael Grodsky: Financial and Health Insurance Specialist

Michael Grodsky’s mission is to create vibrant and interesting educational experiences for artists on the topics of financial planning and health insurance at various locations in the Los Angeles area.

A specialist in socially responsible investing and an Accredited Investment Fiduciary, Michael holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Classical Guitar and a Masters in Music Theory and Composition from Cal State Fullerton.

His firm, Aquarius Financial (aquariusfinancial.com) provides employee benefits consulting services, helping businesses and non-profit organizations implement retirement and group health plans.

Michael lives in Los Angeles with artist Mara Lonner and their two rescue dogs, Nancy & Henry.

Jedidia Dyer: Fabricator and Preparator

Jedidia Dyer is a sculptor and art fabricator. He works in various medium and teaches fabrication skills from basic to advanced workshop techniques. He attended art school in Texas and presently has a business in Los Angeles. His business, Art Assist, has grown in the past several years from art installation to fabrication. Jedidia started Art Assist in 2004 after moving from Nashville.

He was in the music industry for thirty years where he designed and fabricated sets and stages. He has worked in many Los Angeles museums and galleries as an art handler and preparator. Over the years he began to fabricate products for the art industry and now works with new and established artists. Many clients don’t have the skills or space needed to create the art they envision so, Jedidia is now offering his services and shop facility to help those artists. His shop in North Hollywood has all the necessary tools and equipment to work in several medium. Some of his workshops include; woodworking, metal work, sculpting, mold making, casting and spray painting. His programs and instruction have empowered many artist and students with the necessary skills and confidence to be more creative with their specific talents.

He also offers personal assistance and guidance for those who prefer one on one attention. He will completely fabricate your art for you, according to your design and instruction or he will work with you throughout the requested stages of your project.