It is always interesting when life comes full circle.  I first painted with Yako de Arburn in his studio in Cawston, BC back in 2000.  When one paints in the same room with another painter, one inevitably picks up techniques in colour, style and theme without necessarily talking about it. In the years that followed I would again be part of a larger painting group with Yako, so to now share a gallery space and wall with him at the Golo Art Project  is an honour and an exciting continuation of my artist  journey.

Yako de Arburn was born in Montreal June 29th, 1961.  Yako travelled out to BC as a youth, spent many years in Vancouver and now resides in the Similkameen Valley. He does not remember a time in his life that he was not drawing and painting. He is a self-taught oil painter and has dabbled in a variety of mediums, from giant props as a set designer for movies, to TV and theatre to molding latex-foam puppet heads. Yako’s fascination with ocean bottoms led him to spend hours creating detailed coral reefs with all its inhabitants; dreams of living under water are  brought to life in his paintings.

Some of Yako’s paintings explore how the lack of water affects the creature world and how the underwater world is becoming the last on the global list of priorities. His deep connection with the Middle East inspired a series of paintings that was exhibited in Montreal after the first Gulf War in 1991. The exhibit was a tribute to the civilian casualties. The conflict in Gaza and other injustices inflicted in that part of the world have fuelled the need to express his “states of soul” through painting. Yako says of why he paints,

“Catastrophes and cataclysms seem to generate a powerful need to send out a compassionate thought … art is one great messenger…”

Water continues to be a strong thematic element of Yako’s paintings and his vivid dreams a great source for images and visions for his canvas. Mysticism and mythology are constant in his approach to any subject. Yako writes, “The genetic memory that makes this whole universe “ONE” implies that nothing is created, just reproduced…this memory bank can be called imagination.”

Follow Yako’s journey through over a decade of oil painting.

You can also find Yako’s work at http://1secret.multiply.com, on Face book at http://facebook.com/yako.de.arburn and of course at The Golo Art Project. Look forward to seeing new work by Yako de Arburn next year in the Toni Onley Room at the Penticton Art Galley Sept 14th – Oct 30^th, 2012 along with fellow Similkameen painter Gabrielle Villecourt.

Join our Face book group or e-mail goloartproject@live.com and receive updates on Life Drawing classes, Games Night, Stitch & Bitch and more to come in the Project Room. Or join me here at oook.ca for my weekly post “writings from the wall” as I introduce a Golo artist each week and intertwine their unhighwaylike path through their community and beyond.