Yatika Starr Fields

Fields is working with his mother (Fiber Artist Anita Fields) to create a community engagement project titled “War Club" which will focus on Oklahoma Indigenous activism from the late 1960s to present day. “As a Native, we are political just by being alive and existing,” says Fields. “I’m an artist, I’m an image maker and thinker. I want my work to be with dialogue to make you think about things. Maybe we can find a solution through these works. I’m not for sure, but it’s worth trying, and we have to do it together.”

Yatika Starr Fields (born 1980) is a Native American painter, muralist and street artist, born in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

His artworks were shown at numerous galleries and museums, including the APEC Young Artist Exhibition and recently in the Sam Noble Museum.

Fields' artworks explores the themes of family, community, and cultural diversity to illustrate its significance in societal norms for Native Americans.

Yatika Fields grew up in an artistic family and followed in the footsteps of his parents, Tom and Anita Fields, who are both Native artists themselves.

Yatika Fields is part of the Cherokee, Creek and Osage tribes.

He is also a Bear clan member.

In the Creek and Osage tribes, he is named Yvtekv (meaning "interpreter"), and has some multivalent projects that are open to the audience.

The name Ho-moie was also given to him from the members of the Osage tribes.

Fields' techniques involve using oil, acrylic, and watercolour mediums on canvases and paper to create his works of art.

He utilizes bright, vibrant colours which are visible in his large illustrations.

His mural pieces are expressed inside galleries and outside on the streets, which is where he continues to produce his graffiti art.

Yatika Starr Fields attended Stillwater High School where he found his passion for painting.

In high school, he was given many opportunities where he learned a variety of different techniques.

Fields has been able to travel the world and engage with diverse cultural communities.

“I got to meet all of these artists who were quite young, but older than me.

They were already making amazing work,” remembers Fields.

“I saw on a global scale what artists were doing and the dialogue they were having, and that shifted my perception of what I wanted to do.”

In 2000, Yatika attended a college-level summer painting course in Italy, which was organized by an art professor from Oklahoma State University (OSU).

In November, he presented himself at the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting where he was chosen to represent young Native American artists.

In this regard, he studied how to paint with materials, such as light and colour.

In his graffiti pieces, Fields uses distinctive approaches (lines, movement, layering), which differentiates him from other painters.

He then graduated from high school and attended the Art Institute of Boston from 2001 to 2004.

During these years, he continued to paint, and he began to work on large murals.

This was where he developed his interest in graffiti art.

“Graffiti is very confrontational This was me rebelling against the western idea of fine art.

It was me finding another new voice and new style and rejecting everything I had just learned (in college),” says Fields adding that his graffiti work added to his ability to work large-scale and use full body motion are skills that he continues to utilize when creating large murals in front of an audience: “It’s almost choreographed, like you’re putting on a performance.”

The use of strong and vibrant colours in his pieces portray the diverse groups of Indigenous people.

Through Yatika’s artworks, he encourages individuals to have an enhanced understanding on indigenous culture because of the way they are misrepresented in society.

He paints his large murals in Indigenous areas and in places that aren’t as wealthy.

He creates his art in these communities because he wants to brighten these sites with bold colours in order to show the beauty of that specific place.

Fields wants to give back to the community he came from.

“I think I’ve only really seen that in the last five years - I’m at an age now that it’s my turn to do that,” says Fields.

“In your twenties you're still relying on mentors and older artists, but then you get to a point that you say ‘Oh, I’m that artist now.’ It’s in my nature to give back and I’m happy that it’s there.

Any young artist, especially Native artists, as long as they’re doing it right - right meaning challenging the perception of the work and working with their community - I want to help because I’ve been fortunate to get where I am today through the help of others.”

Fields was at Standing Rock in 2016 when he joined the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their supporters at the Dakota Access Pipeline, a major event in his life as an activist.

Fields says being a part of the protests significantly shifted the content of his artwork and how he perceives his responsibility not only as an artist.

“My dad was at Alcatraz and we had family friends at Wounded Knee, so I’ve always known about Native American occupations and the politics of the United States,” said Fields.

“There was an opportunity to go, not just as a spectator, but to be a believer for who we are as a people and to fight for our rights just like my ancestors did.

It was very powerful.”