Yatika Starr Fields was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in December 1980. He is the son of Tom and Anita Fields, and has a sister, Welana and a brother, Nokosee.

Yatika is of the Cherokee, Creek, and Osage tribes, and is a member of the Bear Clan. His Creek name "Yvtekv" means "Interpreter". He was giving his Osage name, "Ho-moie" (Among the heavenly bodies) during an Osage Native American Church meeting on his first birthday. When he was seven years old he was initiated into the Osage I-lo-shka dance society, Hominy district.

Yatika studied sculpture, painting, and photography at the prestigious Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute.  In 1999, he received the American Vision Award. The next year, he won at least 9 awards at the Oklahoma Regional Scholastic Art Competition and received The Oklahoma State Superintendents Award for Art Excellence. After graduating from Stillwater High School in 2000, he traveled to Siena, Italy where he studied landscape painting and the works of art by the masters.

Upon his return, Yatika attended the Art Institute of Boston where he studied for a year. During his years living in Boston, Yatika continued to paint and became involved in the urban graffiti culture. It was during this time that he became involved in large area painting and started working on mural projects.  During the summer of 2004, Yatika collaborated on a mural for Native Youth Night held at the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum in Santa Fe, NM.  Next, he painted an original mural for the Osage tribal Casino.  In 2006 he painted the interior mural at the Osage Language Center in Fairfax, Oklahoma.

2007 was a year of group shows - Yatika was in no less than 6 group shows in Canada, Colorado, New Mexico, New York, and Oklahoma.  In 2008, he had a solo show entitled "Dynamic Interpretations" at the Southern Plains Indian Museum in Anadarko, Oklahoma.  In 2009, Yatika received the Urban Artist Initiative / NYC Fellowship in the Visual Arts.  In 2010, he had shows in New Mexico and Brooklyn, NY.

Yatika currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, where he continues to paint and experience the creative energies and inspirations of urban life.

Artist Statement:
My work begins swiftly and intuitively, as momentum shapes the composition on canvas. I challenge myself to integrate the physical environment around me with its unseen emotional life. Gradually the narrative of the piece is revealed. From here I work to detail the painting's subject in nuances. My process focuses on fluidity of form and boldness of palate. Bringing the unseen alive in a way that will inspire in my audience a revelation of ideas, color, and form. Reshaping their relationship to what they take for granted.