William Lateef Yoder

William Lateef Yoder  "Observing Our Own Emotions"

When I was growing up, I used to come into the city a lot to see bands, indie films, poetry readings, art shows - basically all the good and vital stuff I couldn't find in the suburbs.  One of my usual stops on the circuit was to Tower Records, may it rest in piece.  It was more than just a music store, though I certainly forked over plenty of my allowance to buy import CDs and obscure albums I couldn't find elsewhere.  It also had a great inventory of offbeat zines and postcards and stickers, perfect fodder for decorating my hyper-ornamented teenage bedroom.

One such postcard which found its way to my walls is shown above.  I adored its strange psycho-logic and the beguiling innocence of the girl in the pink dress who is obviously having an intense and strange interior experience.  And I loved its retro-surrealistic style - a little bit Dick and Jane on LSD.  This postcard lived in my room for years in middle school and high school, eventually migrated to my various college dorm rooms, all the while getting beat up and tattered and then, sadly, lost. 

Thanks to the wonders of the digiweb, I have joyously found it again, as well as 4 other postcards by the artist, whose name I learned is William Lateef Yoder.  I had trouble finding out much about him beyond this on the SilverCrow Creations website:

This odd artwork by artist William Lateef Yoder, 1987 features so many symbols, we're not sure if they are to be taken at face value and literally translated or to jump into the interpretation head first...

...The only information we found on the artist himself was his residence in CORE in 1986/1987, a residential school at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Still, I'm over the moon to have reconnected with this curious, imaginal work, and to learn even this little bit more about its maker.

Comments

[leecrager@aol.com]

I'm a fan of this artist also. I'd love to know more about him.

[leecrager@aol.com]

To be really honest, I fell in love with Lateef Yoder when I was 19. We were both working in Sequoia National Park. I dropped out of college to meet him in San Francisco. I came to the city on the 26th of December, 1974. It was a magical couple of years. I saw him a couple of times after we parted, but then lost tract. You picked up his energy just by looking at his art. I've gone on, married with 3 grown kids, but will always have a place for him in my heart.