Joseph Yoakum described his art as a process of "spiritual unfoldment," in which abstracted passages of mountains, water, trees, and sky were revealed to him as he drew. His drawings combine memories of real places with journeys of the imagination. His elegant and enigmatic works were admired and collected by artists in the exhibition group called the Hairy Who, as well as other Chicago Imagists working during the 1960s and 1970s.