By Zack Orsborn 

Vibrancy and rhythm is ingrained in Nathan Alan Yoakum’s artistic conscience as he works to generate an experience with his art.

His dimensional developments of resin distills a range of emotion, music and attitude. The application of this inimitable medium arose during the reflective task of maint­­­aining his many surfboards and their eventual demise from working waves along the Florida coast. He has developed a technique of forming resin sheets of various dimension and infusing them with a variety of media that brings depth and spirit to his work. He is able to mount, pour, drip and assemble a composition that is meaningful to the artist and his desire to connect the casual observer to the deeper meaning of the piece at hand.

Nathan attributes his artistic conscience to a childhood fervor for the arts and his need to explore and create. His love for sculpture and painting has prevailed. His work blurs the boundaries of dimensional interpretation as his early influences and studies of the works of impressionist, surrealist and most importantly, abstract expressionist artists still captures his interest.

Just as the music that incites him to record his realizations, his foresight of a composition renders the parts of a whole and his medium yields a means to construct. Undoubtedly, his compositions explore the dichotomy of the visual and heard senses.

Nathan grew up in Memphis, Tennessee where many music genres originated, grew, or settled. His art has been influenced by this connection to music. He studied art at the University of Memphis until the time he decided he needed a less formal environment in which to learn. He relocated to Santa Rosa Beach, Florida in 2006 and began to develop a connection to beach, ocean and surfing. It is during this phase of his life and his love for 1960s and 1970s music that he found himself carving his own niche in abstract expressionism. Nathan currently lives in Florida with his wife Polly and his dog Reuben.


<< Nathan standing with 9 Marilyns