Gary Cody was born in Lethbridge, Alberta in 1950, and grew up in Calgary.
He attended the Alberta College of Art from 1970-74 and studied with John Hall and George Wood.
He moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to work on his Bachelor of Fine Arts (1974-76) where he studied with Otto Rogers and Mina Forsythe.
While at the U.of S., he worked during the summer doing medical illustrations for the veterinary and medical schools. This eventually turned into a full-time career that took him to the University of Western Ontario, and eventually back to the University of Saskatchewan. He worked as a medical illustrator until 1986, taking time out from 1980-81 to get a Masters of Visual Art from the University of Alberta, Edmonton.
He moved to Vancouver in 1986, where he worked as a free-lance illustrator and computer animator until 2000, when he returned to painting on a full-time basis. He has exhibited at various galleries in Canada, and his work can be found in both private and public collections. He is now retired and painting full-time.