First ever Worldwide Online Tiki Art Show and PARTY!

Monday, December 15th
9pm to Midnight
U.S.A. Pacific Time
Pop on over and join the festivities, spock some killer art and purchase some one of a kind art! Read more here

Takin' it easy, crusin' the coast and hangin' out

After an evening of fun at Bali Hai, the next day was very low key. Big Tiki Dude managed to talk a few of us into getting breakfast at the Broken Yolk in Pacific Beach. Although loud, the food was good and we were seated instantly upon arriving despite the full house. Grog, Swampfire, Atomic Kitty, Kirby, Big Tiki Dude and I enjoyed a nice breakfast and interesting conversation. It was very interesting and cool listening to each other as we talked about art, our careers and the the highs and lows of trying to make a living in a creative field. I passed around a paper napkin and had everyone scribble a doodle on it.


After Breakfast we said so long to Big Tiki Dude and Swamp Fire and headed back to Humphrey's. The rest of us stopped by Trader Mort's Liquor store to take a look inside and get a few shots of the tikis that decorate the place. Grog, Suzy and Kirby dropped me off and hit the road. I tracked down Tiki Chris
and Tiki Racer by the poolside. We chatted a bit, I took a few more pics and then split back to Encinitas to drop off the van I had borrowed and too hang out with Sean, Erica and Kai one last time before headin' north. The next morning Chris and Steve picked me up and we started our trek north. We stopped at Tiki Farm too meet up with the always gracious Makedamug who gave us a nice tour of the warehouse and magoomba along with a short history of the Farm and a preview of upcoming projects. We picked up several mugs said our good byes and then charged down to Little Lost Tiki's art studio for an art jam/ Tiki Frat party. LLT hooked Tiki Racer and I up with art supplies and technique tips. We all got creative while Chris snapped some pics. A bit later Squid had stopped by and so did Big Tiki Dude and Jon Paul with some rum and snacks. It wasn't long before we were all laughin' and havin' a good ol time drinkin', creatin' art and makin' up names for Jon Paul to use as a handle on Tiki Central, most of which should not be repeated.

A few hours of mindless fun later we hit the road again. Tiki Racer kept a lid on his drinkin' and safely drove us another couple hours North to Ventura where we crashed my Mom's house. The following morning we fueled up at a local breakfast nook then pounded miles to Santa Cruz and made very good time. After we arrived at my Mom's other house up North we relaxed a bit with her and my Sis, then went out for some ono grinds at The Aloha Island Grille. As luck would have it a few of my friends from The Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz were having a small ukulele jambalamba. We ate our tasty hawaiian dinners, chatted a bit and listened to the uke players croon before poppin' over to Hula's in downtown Santa Cruz for a few Mai Tais, Zombies and more tiki vibes. A few drinks later we ended the evening.

We all woke up the next morning pretty early and said our goodbyes. Tiki Racer, who is now a good friend and all around groovy mate, is headin' back to jolly old England on Thursday and passed along to me some of his nifty Tiki London prints, a Mahiki menu that he designed and one of his crazy cool Zombie Mugs. Chris is stayin' in the states for a few more days so I will be hookin' back up with him during the 7th annual San Francisco Tiki Crawl. Which will be streamed live during the crawl for those of you who can't make it to the Bay area this weekend. Boy oh boy is this gonna be great!

Here are some of my pics and I am sure Tiki Chris will have some of his pics posted when he has some free time.

Tiki Magazine's Art Show at Bali Hai

After six days of non stop music, art, laughter and time spent with good friends and ohana I have finally gotten a chance to catch up with my blog. I left Kauai Thursday afternoon and flew over to Honolulu. Between island flights I had changed seats and left my ipod case along with my camera cables in the seat pocket in front of me. I remembered I had done so as we were taking off for Maui, but by the time I was able to get up out of my seat and go back to where I was sitting it was too late. Fortunately, a flight attendant had found it before anybody could nerp it. Unfortunately, he had given the case to the agent in Honolulu so I was without my tunes and worse yet my cables to get the pictures from my camera onto my laptop. I was hopin' this was not going to be the way my luck was going to go for the rest of my trip.

After what felt like a pretty quick flight, I landed in San Diego around 11:00 pm. My Friend Sean came out to pick me up and stay at his pad in Encinitas. The next day we got up early and caught some really fun (but kinda chilly) 3-4' surf out in front of his house at Cardiff reef.

Sean and his wife Erica lent me their van and hooked me up with a mattress inside so I wouldn't have to worry about driving buzzed back from the Tiki Magazine's Bali Hai Art Show which I was participating in later that night. I left early to get to the Bali Hai and give myself plenty of time to set up and chat before the show. However, I ended sitting in traffic for hours because some idiot was leaving pipe bombs along the highway thus shutting down huge sections of the freeways that lead into San Diego. Those damn Tiki Terrorist had struck again!


Eventually I made it to Shelter Island and was still early enough to get in some quality time with a few of the other artists and early birds as well as secure a nice spot to display my art thanks to Mean Gene at Falling Cocos. The quality of art was mind blowin' and my eyes were droolin'. Seeing so much fantastic art work in one place was making me dizzier than the Mai-Tai's I was slurpin' down. The Tiki Magazine and Bali Hai Staff did a fanatastic job of putting together a history making event that brought together an amazing amount of talent all under one roof. Adding to the ambiance was the smooth sounds of the Smokin' Menehunes and the swaying moves of gorgeous Hula dancers.


After the show a large gaggle of revelers found themselves partyin' with Ali'i in his room at Humphrey's By The Bay which is a hotel with a tropical theme and plenty of tikis near the Bali Hai. As usual, large crowds are hard to keep hushed so security was quickly there to say good night to us all. So we made our way to the club at Humphrey where we all got loose and shook our bones to a funky bunch of dudes singin' music I never thought I would ever ever listen to unless forced by gun point.

So after a few more drinks and the passing of time our troops began to thin. We all made our way to places to lie our heads and let the visions of tropical fantasy escort us into our dreams. Here is a slide show from the fun filled evening of art, music and friends:

The Art of Sanjay Patel

I came across this site on Boingboing about an illustrated book of Hindu Dieties by an artist named Sanjay Patel who works as animator for Pixar and who's style has been compared to Mary Blair that I found very interesting. Here is a link to some of Sanjay's Doodles. Very cool lookin' stuff.