donald yatomi 

My personal origin was littered with the grit of poverty in a low-income part of Honolulu, and it is for this reason that I am drawn to the uncelebrated spaces. My earliest memories are nestled in the ugly, the poor, in the repetitive schemes, of nameless strangers, and along the lonely alleys.

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The background landscape of my childhood developed me as a formal, classically trained, and unconventional artist drawn to prosaic places. The compositional and golden rules remain within my work. These rules are discreet and blended into the unorthodox color palette, functioning as a familiar hook waiting for the observer.

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During this process, I reminisce, perhaps about sitting alone holding a stack of quarters in a laundry mat, absorbed in a room full of revolving strangers, the smells, the sounds of my childhood. I become rooted in distant, unglorified space. Now, in my approach, I challenge myself to make the habitual and taken-for-granted appreciated.

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My greatest influences come from Willem de Kooning, Chuck Close, and Antonio Tapies.