North Central Oklahoma is becoming a center for murals.
First “The Three Faces of the Pioneer Woman” by Daniel Pickens was installed at City Central in Ponca City in 2019. And all Ponca City is looking forward to the mural “Oklahoma Sunrise” that will be painted on the east side of the Robin Hood Flour Mill and “The Beauty of Life” which will be painted on the west side of the grain elevator by Rick Sinnett.
In the meantime NOC and Pickens Museum are announcing that work will begin on May 3 on a 20 foot by 50 foot mural that will be painted by Osage artist Yatika Starr Fields in the Native American Engagement Center in the Administration Building on the Tonkawa campus of NOC. The public is welcome to come and view the mural in progress this Friday, May 7 from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. A mural time-lapse video will also be created.
Fields’ paintings generally take two to three weeks to create and work on the mural at NOC is expected to be completed by the middle of May. Fields prefers a blank canvas when he begins, rather than drawing a sketch. He said there is no real blueprint for his paintings, and the result is typically a mesh between what his intentions were with what he was feeling in the moment.
“I just see something and I’ll add it,” he said. “I don’t hesitate to put what I think it needs, and I’ll know it’s finished when it just feels good.”
The mural at NOC is a result of a collaboration between Pickens Museum and NOC. “When Cheryl Evans said they were looking for an artist to paint a mural for the engagement center, I immediately recommended Yatika,” says Hugh Pickens, Executive Director of Pickens Museum adding that Pickens Museum already has ten paintings by Fields in its permanent collection. “Yatika was delighted to have the opportunity to paint a mural that will inspire Native American students at NOC.”
“We are thrilled to partner with Hugh Pickens and the Doctor Pickens Museum,” said NOC president Cheryl Evans. “This mural will complete the fourth phase of the project and will enhance the Cultural Engagement Center. We are grateful for friends such as the Pickens who continue to support our College.”
Fields is a nationally known painter and muralist. While attending the Art Institute of Boston from 2000 to 2004, he became interested in ...
