Celebrating the uncelebrated
Donald Yatomi, Orange Jeep on Lift, oil, 24 x 48.
This story was featured in the August 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art August 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
IF YOU’RE LOOKING for paintings with traditional subject matter and brushwork, artist Donald Yatomi is not your guy. “It’s eve-rything against tradition,” the Oregon painter says about his work. “It’s saying: What haven’t we seen on the museum wall yet?”
A visit to Yatomi’s website reinforces his philosophy. There, the words Contemporary Realism of the Uncelebrated appear in capital letters below an image of a black Ford Mustang, loosely painted with loads of gestural mark-making. The artist didn’t always paint with such bravado, though. For a long time, he exclusively worked with brushes, which produced lots of soft edges but none of the visual contrast he wanted. So Yatomi added knives, spatulas, squeegees, aluminum rulers, and T squares to his toolbox. “A lot of the subject matter I paint is so quiet,” he explains. “I feel like it needs a bit of motion and noise. By slapping paint on, it feels like I’m agitating the air.”
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- Donald Yatomi, Laurelhurst Theater, oil, 71 x 48.
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- Donald Yatomi, Arcade, oil, 12 x 24.
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- Donald Yatomi, Flush Right, oil, 24 x 36.
Yatomi often seeks out urban and industrial subject matter that he describes as mundane. He has a series of laundromat paintings, for example, that evoke memories of his childhood in Hawaii, where living paycheck-to-paycheck was the norm for his family, as were routine trips to the laundromat. Today the artist enjoys the challenge of portraying laundromat interiors, with their monotonous rows of washers and dryers and their monochromatic palettes, in a visually exciting way. “I like painting the ignored,” he says simply. “The challenge is, how do you make it interesting?”
The artist earned a degree in painting from the University of Hawaii in the early 1990s and then worked at a steak house for five months, saving up just enough cash to attend the school of his dreams—the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA—for one term. The very next term, he received a scholarship that allowed him to stay on and continue his studies. In three years, he earned his bachelor’s degree in illustration with distinction; DreamWorks Studios recruited him right out of the gate.
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- Donald Yatomi, Gin & Tonic, oil, 8 x 6.
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- Donald Yatomi, The Usual, oil, 24 x 48.
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- Donald Yatomi, One Point Twenty One Gigawatts, oil, 12 x 24.
Today Yatomi works as an art director and designer in the video-game industry; in the evenings, he paints. As for inspiration, it’s just about everywhere—arcades, airports, auto shops, pubs. If he hasn’t seen it hanging on the wall of an art museum yet, says the artist, “Let me be the first one to try it. I’ll take that chance.” —Kim Agricola
representation
A Gallery, Salt Lake City, UT; Peterson/Roth Gallery, Bend, OR; www.donaldyatomi.com.
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- Donald Yatomi, Three Amigos, oil, 14 x 11.
This story was featured in the August 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art August 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
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