Living in New York City-even worse, Brooklyn-being young, hip, and an “artist” is pretty much a license to be an asshole, but not so for Yatika Fields, a young, hip, painter who lives in Park Slope. I’ve met him numerous times and each time he has been not an asshole, and that is saying a lot.

Yatika came to New York City by way of a brief stint in art school up in Boston; before that he was a youngster in Oklahoma learning his craft, garnering regional acclaim, and representation through a Santa Fe contemporary art gallery.

But, he’s a humble fellow.

Instead of resting on these few laurels he chooses to work through stylistic (or regional) boundaries, open to fresh experiments in paint. His work belies his age and his points of reference but his is an evolving tableau of riotous color, stylized patterns and abstract shapes that morph to figurative with a shift of the eye.

I caught up with him one windy afternoon in Brooklyn accompanying him to the Long Island University Gallery where he de-installed some recent works and then to a local Applebee’s for lunch where bad R&B music blared throughout the interview.

Here’s what he had to say.

Maria: You recently participated in the Native Voices: Contemporary Indigenous Art exhibition curated by Raquel Chapa. In your opinion how did it turn out?

Yatika: It turned out well, I thought. I was working with a lot of great artists and my work was up next to theirs, and a lot of people came out and supported. The works all looked great together. I thought it was a really strong show out of the three that took place here in Brooklyn.

Maria: That’s right. Raquel put together three exhibitions here in Brooklyn. I missed this one but attended the one down in Red Hook at the Kentler gallery. Did you see the review we did on our blog Longviews?

Yatika: No I don’t really have Internet access.

Maria: When you do get the chance you should check it out. You’re in a few of the photos. Anyway, let’s talk about your involvement in the native arts community. Some artists find that it is a hindrance (to their art career) to associate themselves with one genre or art community; particularly minority artists who feel they might be pigeonholed if they make work that is reflective of their cultural/racial background. What is your position on this issue?

Yatika: Where I stand on it is that I try to make work that I personally feel good about, that I think is worth showing, and it does reflect where I come from because I am Native American and that is how I grew up. The artists that I have shown with, they are native too, and feel the same way. But we are also contemporary artists and we’re doing a lot of new things that are based on this new world we’re in. So our work is moving away from the usage of traditional Native American imagery. But at the same time it is who we are and you can’t get away from that. But then again we are creating new meanings…

Maria: Re-interpretations of the traditional tropes?

Yatika: Yes, re-interpretations of the old imagery is exactly what we’re trying to do. Modern interpretations. But not to just show in a strictly native art arena-like Santa Fe or just in Native themed exhibitions, but to open the work to move beyond that. I guess you could be pigeonholed by it, but it depends on your drive as an artist. You can be big and be a native artist. I think that’s what those of us who are making contemporary work want-to make the work we feel good about but also to move beyond the traditional arenas for our work.

Maria: But you’re work is sold in a Santa Fe gallery which is considered a traditional venue for “Native American” art work.

Yatika: Yes, by Chiaroscuro gallery, formerly known as the Addison Parks gallery. They mostly represent contemporary and modern artists, they have a high reputation for their modern works, but then there is the usual Native art stuff.

Maria: Bronze statues of war ponies, and portraits of wise Indian men in skins?

Yatika: Yeah, there is some of that. but many of us have moved to more contemporary work.

Maria: What does “Native Contemporary Art” look like?

Yatika: It could look like anything. It really can, but it has to be pushing the level of artistry. It can be wild and abstract but different.

Maria: Let’s qualify that: what does “different” mean? Describe it?

Yatika: I think it is examining new styles. Making something that is unique to you as an artist-your signature style. That’s, I think, what every artist wants to find.

Maria: So instead of going for the traditional color palette that one associates with ‘Native art” or moving away from the traditional Native art materials, for instance, clay or fibers. This would make the work contemporary?

Yatika: Well I’m only really speaking to the traditions in painting. But as far as pottery and stuff it is a way of life and a long tradition that is also different. I can’t really say much about it because it’s not my medium. But there are contemporary potters who are making new shapes based off older concepts and traditions so in that way it works too because they’re taking their traditional methods and re-working them in a contemporary way. But for painting, it’s creating something fantastic that’s going to make people talk, or remember your work. You can do that with painting; it’s so powerful. I think in the world today-with all that’s offered to you as far as mediums-you have to make something stunning to get anyone to pay attention to it.

Maria: In your case, then, it is a matter of aesthetic choices and concerns?

Yatika: Yeah, I guess that would be true.

Maria: Well then describe your (visual) style and what is your process because it sounds to me that you are very concerned with the process of painting.

Yatika: It’s been changing recently. It’s changed in the last years since I moved to the east coast. I’ve been working in the graffiti style, but also learning about line and composition, working in various veins trying to find my style. I used to do a lot of landscape painting when I was in my teens, but then moved into more of a graphic style. I did go to an art program in Boston for two years. I guess I learned fundamental elements there but really just wanted to do my own thing. Find my own way to a style. Something I feel good about.

Maria: Do you think you’ve arrived at that point?

Yatika: Well I feel good about what I do. I guess that’s it. You keep doing what you do and if you keep doing it then it must be good or a good feeling anyway.

Maria: Tell us about the two paintings we just took down at the gallery at Long Island City University.

Yatika: The two paintings that were up at LIU, well, with these two I wanted to create pieces that show fast movement-a lot of my work contains movement. I always work in that way but with these paintings especially, since I was using acrylic paint and you can go really bright, figuring out which colors to use, but the whole composition, for both of them, I worked very quickly. On Prayer For The Bee’s Return I created that composition pretty much in under five minutes working first with aerosol and wide arm movements over the canvas and moving around creating a motion. Then I went back and filled in with acrylic just bringing it out more with layers and layers (of paint) and eventually something would come out but I didn’t over-think it. I wasn’t hesitant about the direction it was going in. I just let it happen, but in the process I wanted to find my own design elements and prints that I use over and over again in a repetitive fashion on the canvas so that the eye has something to draw it in, and wander around, but make them work together and against each other within a movement that’s happening, but then again, create a relaxed feeling that can happen-a space for that to happen within the repeating patterns.

But the larger canvas, that painting was done in a live setting in front of an audience. I covered it with bucket paint (latex house paint) within three hours and then when it was done I started working on it more bringing it out (the themes and design elements) but then again, I did that one in a live setting-very spontaneously. Not thinking about it but letting it happen.

Maria: Where did this take place? By the way, what is the title of that one?

Yatika: That one’s called Butterfly Movement. It was initially started on 6th Avenue and 18th Street in Manhattan with a DJ spinning and an audience watching. That painting was done during a performance in the city with me painting to the beats and moving and dancing and feeling the beats but through that way I was able to capture the energy of space and all the people and cabs rushing by. It’s a more urban feeling (the process) but then I took it back with me and worked on it at home bringing it out more and more, but the initial feeling was that atmosphere, the live atmosphere in the city with the beat of the music and people and traffic.

Maria: But then the overall design patterns are butterflies. They connote nature, a fluidity of movement, freedom, clean air…how did two seemingly disparate notions come together-the propulsive force of the city with the ethereality of butterflies?

Yatika: Well I took it (the painting) back with me to work on it.

Maria: So you lived with it for a while?

Yatika: Yeah, I did live with it for a while, but with where I come from and that feeling (out West) and thinking about what might be necessary to connect the other side not just the city but things that can fly, that can connect one place to another, these animals, these creatures that can be all kinds of colors that can connect one garden to another, one room to the other side. I thought it (the butterfly) could do that well. I really like painting nature but I like to create my own animals and flowers-make them mine.

Maria: So these aren’t supposed to be accurate representations rather an amalgam of the actual elements with whatever is in your mind?

Yatika: Exactly, but they are my own colors, my own wing designs, everything, through that I make them come alive.


Maria: You’ve talked a lot about creating your own signature style but you haven’t really described what it is except to describe it as vivid, but a lot of artists can claim the same. What makes yours a “Yatika Signature Painting”?

Yatika: ….the rapid movement, the color choices, but overall, a fast movement that is evident in all my paintings. A speed, I guess, bring it out by putting a lot on it (the canvas) and quickly.

Maria: Would you say yours is a style that contains visual depth-in terms of layers of paint and pattern?

Yatika: Sure, cause when I paint I’m trying to connect with the viewer. Give them something to puzzle over, and be drawn into, to figure it out. Give them more than an overall impression. Some people like certain sections of my paintings over others. This draws them in and gives them something to connect with.

Maria: Are you o.k. with that? Because some painters are more concerned with ideas or concepts. But what you’re talking about are the principle elements of art-line, shape, proportion, color, etcetera, but other artists are concerned with an immediate recognition or espousing an ideology through their work. You seem unconcerned with that aspect of art practice.

Yatika: Yeah, well, there is a story. It’s mine but I don’t need to, I’d rather have the viewer free associate with whatever they think it is-to relax and be with the painting.

Maria: So if someone came up to you at a show and told you they loved the lower left section of a painting but hated everything else in it would you be o.k. with that?

Yatika: Yeah, I would be o.k. with that, why not? People can have their own thoughts on whatever they like even if it is just a section. But overall I want the viewer to be relaxed with it-if they are then I feel like I’ve achieved something.

Maria: You just finished this show (at LIU) any others coming up?

Yatika: I’m working a series of new paintings for a solo show back home in Oklahoma at the Southern Plains Museum in Anadarko Oklahoma. It’s a catalogue show. It’s my first solo show so I’m trying to put a lot of my energy into that. Eight, I’m working on eight for that one. Pretty large (paintings), but I’m also going to add these two images (from LIU) to that show too.

Maria: Is it true that Anadarko is the most Indian city in all of the United States?

Yatika: I think so.

Maria: There’s some hard core Indians there, no?

Yatika: (laughing) Yeah there are very hardcore Indians there. I’ve heard some stories.

Maria: (presumably hardcore).


If you must know, Yatika is an Osage, Cherokee, Creek. Besides painting he does bike messengering in the city. He’s also 27 years old. He is not single, so don’t try hitting him up on Myspace.