Tyrone Patkoski

Tribe: Tulalip
Based In: Tacoma, WA
Email: joan.staples@comcast.net

About the Art
My art documents life on the margins of society. For the past two decades, a car, a van, an old truck, and the corner of a friend’s garage have served as my home and art studio. I’ve spent decades rummaging dumpsters, looking for inspiration. I have never taken an art class, visited a gallery, or studied art. As a fifty-nine-year-old urban Native American Indian, my visceral paintings, drawings, and 3D objects document my inner struggles, both painful and playful, in intimate detail. When viewing my work, I hope one may glimpse my experiences of life on the street, including periods of mental illness, homelessness, depression, and isolation. I don’t think about what I’m going to create. I just let the paint do what it wants to do.