Yatika Starr Fields facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Yatika Starr Fields
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Yatika Starr Fields in his Tulsa Studio to discuss the mural Fields will paint at the NOC Tonkawa campus. From left Yatika Starr Fields, Sheri Snyder, NOC Vice President for Development and Community Relations, Cheryl Evans, NOC President, and NOC student representative Morshayla Dumas.
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Tulsa, Oklahoma
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| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Artist, Muralist, Painter |
Yatika Starr Fields (born 1980) is a Native American artist from Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is known for his paintings, large murals, and street art. His artworks have been shown in many galleries and museums, like the Sam Noble Museum.
Yatika's art often explores themes like family, community, and different cultures. He shows how important these ideas are for Native American people.
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About Yatika Starr Fields
Yatika Fields grew up in an artistic family. His parents, Tom and Anita Fields, are also Native artists. Yatika is part of the Cherokee, Creek, and Osage tribes. He is also a Bear clan member.
In the Creek and Osage tribes, his name is Yvtekv, which means "interpreter." He also received the name Ho-moie from the Osage people.
Yatika uses oil, acrylic, and watercolor paints for his art. He uses bright, strong colors in his large artworks. You can see his murals inside galleries and outside on the streets. He also creates graffiti art.
His Education and Travels
Yatika Starr Fields found his love for painting at Stillwater High School. There, he learned many different art techniques.
He has traveled the world and met artists from many cultures. These experiences changed how he saw art and what he wanted to create.
In 2000, Yatika took a summer painting class in Italy. It was organized by a professor from Oklahoma State University. Later that year, he represented young Native American artists at a big meeting called the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting. He learned a lot about using light and color in his art.
Graffiti Art Style
Yatika uses special lines, movement, and layers in his graffiti art. This makes his style unique. After high school, he studied at the Art Institute of Boston from 2001 to 2004. During this time, he started working on large murals and became very interested in graffiti.
He sees graffiti as a way to challenge traditional art. It helped him find a new voice and style. Working with graffiti also taught him how to create large pieces using his whole body. He says it's almost like a performance when he paints big murals in front of people.
Showing Indigenous Culture
Yatika uses strong, bright colors to show the many different groups of Indigenous people. Through his art, he wants people to better understand Indigenous cultures. He feels they are often misunderstood in society.
He paints large murals in Indigenous areas and places that are not wealthy. He wants to brighten these places with bold colors. This helps show the beauty of these communities.
Yatika wants to give back to his community. He helps young artists, especially Native artists. He wants them to challenge ideas about art and work with their communities. He feels lucky to have gotten where he is today because others helped him.
Standing Rock Protests
In 2016, Yatika was at Standing Rock. He joined the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their supporters protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. This was a very important event in his life as an activist.
Being part of the protests changed his artwork. It also changed how he saw his role as an artist. His family has a history of activism. He felt it was his turn to fight for Native American rights, just like his ancestors did. He found it to be a very powerful experience.
"War Club" Project
Yatika is working with his mother, Anita Fields, on a project called "War Club." This project will focus on Indigenous activism in Oklahoma from the late 1960s until today.
Yatika believes that being Native American means being political. As an artist, he wants his work to make people think and talk. He hopes his art can help find solutions to problems.
Yatika's Artworks
"White Buffalo Calf Woman"
In 2017, Yatika Starr Fields created this oil on canvas painting. It shows his support for the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline. This pipeline was planned to run near the Standing Rock reservation. The tribe worried it would harm their land and burial grounds.
The painting has three parts. The top and bottom show a sunrise and sunset, marking the time of a ceremony. In the middle, three women march. They wear long skirts and winter boots. The shawls they wear are a symbol for the White Buffalo Calf Woman. Yatika painted this to show his support for the women protesting for the Standing Rock tribes.
"Sami Solidarity"
This oil on canvas painting from 2017 shows the challenges of protecting Indigenous land. It uses many bright colors. In 2016, Indigenous people from Norway, Sweden, and Finland, including two Sami women, visited the Oceti Sakowin camp. This camp was resisting the Dakota Access Pipeline. Indigenous people gathered there to stand up for their rights.
The two Indigenous people in the painting wear gákti, which is traditional clothing. Yatika Fields captured this moment to show the real lives of Indigenous people.
"Prayer for the Return of Bees"
This oil on canvas painting was made in 2008. In this artwork, Yatika imagined a world where bees no longer existed. He wanted to highlight the global problem of fewer bees. He included elements of nature and used bright, bold colors.
Murals at Northern Oklahoma College
In 2021, the Pickens Museum asked Yatika Starr Fields to paint a huge mural. It is 20 feet tall and 60 feet wide. This mural is in the Cultural Engagement Center at Northern Oklahoma College (NOC) in Tonkawa. The center is a place for students and tribal leaders to meet and learn.
Yatika's mural is full of movement and bright colors. It shows drums, beads, dancers, and horses. He says that dancing is about movement and rhythm, which has always been part of his life. This feeling of rhythm and movement flows through his artwork.
In 2022, NOC announced that its library would become the Pickens Learning Commons. This new space includes two more permanent murals by Yatika Starr Fields. These murals are 100 feet long and 20 feet tall. The Learning Commons also displays many artworks from the Doctor Pickens Museum.
Yatika's large mural in the Pickens Learning Commons shows different scenes from Northern Oklahoma College life. It includes a woman with a microscope, show lambs, someone looking through books, and people using VR systems. It also features NOC’s mascot, Mav the bull, and performing arts. These images flow together in a beautiful display of colors and knowledge.
Running and Painting
Yatika Fields is also an ultra-runner. He runs very long races, sometimes over 90 miles, several times a year. In 2019, he completed a tough 90-mile race in the Alps.
He sees a connection between his running and his painting. He believes both require patience and dedication. He feels that running, painting, and movement are all forms of art. He finds a strong link between using a paintbrush and using his legs and mind. He says both running and painting are colorful and like poetry.
Where Yatika Lives Now
Yatika Fields currently lives in Brooklyn, New York City. He continues to paint there. The energetic and lively city inspires him and helps fuel his creativity.
Exhibitions
Yatika Starr Fields' artworks have been shown in many exhibitions, including:
- National Scholastic Art Exhibit, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC (1999)
- Contemporary Indigenous Arts: Discovering the Roots (APEC) Young Artist Exhibition, Malaysia (2000)
- Contemporary Indian Market Show, Santa Fe (2007)
- Dynamic Interpretations, Southern Plains Museum, Oklahoma (2008)
- In-Visibility, Amerinda, New York City (2009)
- Inside-Outside, Lovetts Gallery, Oklahoma (2010)
- Exhibit of the Salon du Dessin et de la Peinture à l’Eau, Grand Palais, Paris, France (2011)
- Indigenous Water Rights, MainSite Gallery, Oklahoma (2012)
- Unraveling Time, Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, LA (2013)
- Affiliated: The Art of the Urban Experience, Brisky Gallery, Florida (2013)
- Contemporary Native Group Show, Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art, Santa Fe (2013)
- Annual Contemporary Native American Group Show, Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art, Santa Fe (2014)
- Santa Fe Indian Market Group Show, BlueRain Gallery, Santa Fe (2015)
- Cultural Crossroads Group Exhibition, Joseph Gierek Fine Art, Tulsa Oklahoma (2017)
- Solo Exhibition, Rainmaker Gallery, Bristol UK (2017)
- Fluent Generations: The Art of Anita, Tom, and Yatika Fields, Oklahoma (2018)
- Decadence, Solo Exhibition, TAC Gallery, Oklahoma (2018)
- Art For A New Understanding, IAIA, Santa Fe (2019)
- Monarchs, Bluestar Contemporary, San Antonio (2019)
- Artist in Residence, Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts (2019)
Awards and Collections
In 2000, Yatika Starr Fields received the American Vision Award after graduating from high school. He also worked with the Fort Smith Symphony. Yatika and students from the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith (UAFS) painted what they imagined while listening to orchestral music.
You can see Yatika's work in these museums and galleries:
- Oklahoma State Museum
- Sam Noble Museum
- Heard Museum
- Gilcrease Museum
- Hood Museum Dartmouth
- Volkenkunde Museum
Pickens Museum Collection
The Pickens Museum has a large collection of Yatika Fields' paintings. They have over a dozen of his artworks. As mentioned, the museum also asked him to create two large murals for Northern Oklahoma College (NOC) in Tonkawa. One was for the Cultural Engagement Center in 2021, and another for the Pickens Learning Commons in 2022.
