Hawaiian Eye Mug by Kevin Kidney

Kevin Kidney is the A#1 lover of all things Hawaiian Eye, the 1959-63 Warner Bros. TV show… he’s also, in my opinion, the A#1 Polynesian Pop artist. No one does Polynesian Pop in true keeping with the midcentury style of the art form like Kevin does.

So this is a natural: a tiki mug, sculpted by Kevin (he paints! he draws! he sculpts! he’s unstoppable!), based on the Hawaiian Eye tiki. Kevin says this is a project in the works, with a squishy estimate of it becoming real in early 2009. It’ll have a bisque finish, and a lid with a straw hole.

Sing it with me now… HAWAIIAN EEEEEEEYE - AH!

• Hawaiian Eye Tiki Mug by Kevin Kidney [Flickr]
• Hawaiian Eye [Wikipedia]
• HAWAIIAN EYE tv show opening [YouTube]

Tiki bar by Wes Bailey

Tiki bar construction is a bit weird — it’s an effort to intentionally create something that looks a little haphazard, a little goofy, and frankly… a little ugly. Now of course, I find it beautiful — and you probably do, too — but you have to admit, it’s not likely to wind up in the pages of House Beautiful.

I just got a really nice email from a professional woodworker who normally specializes in a much more conventionally refined style, and was asked to create one of these delightful little monsters for the first time:

My name is Wes Bailey, and I am a furniture maker in Atlanta, GA. A few months back, a client came to me and requested that I design and build a Tiki Bar for his basemant renovation. I must confess that, at the time, I was woefully unaware of the well-established sub culture of the Tikiphile. So I did some internet research and came across your terrific site, which helped give me the requisite inspiration to deliver the goods! It turned out great, the customer loved it and hasn’t been sober since, so I view that as a real success.

I have to admit, it makes me warm & squishy. I get lots & lots of really wonderful emails along the lines of this one, and they always make my day… but this one is a favorite because, well, I just really like the bar he built. A lot of credit goes to the owner, who has done a great job decorating the room. But the bar itself is really nice, especially for a right-out-of-the-gate effort. Tikis: check. Not too clean in the design, but still with a sense of balance: check. Organic feel: check. I especially like the detour from the standard thatch roof: wood slats that look like they’ve been through a hell of a storm, and loved it. It floats my outrigger.

• Wes Bailey, Fine Craftsman

Momma Monkey, by Atomikitty

Susannah Mosher, a.k.a. Atomikitty, has started a coconut monkey refuge:

Captured and brought to the states as souvenirs of exotic tropical vacations, or with servicemen after their tours of duty in the pacific, these coconut monkeys took up residence in american homes and became an icon of the tiki and cocktail culture of the 50’s and 60’s.

As rumpus rooms and home tiki bars fell out of fashion, so too did the coconut monkey. For decades they have been discarded by their owners, stranded on garage sale and flea market blankets, and forgotten in dusty attics as their coconut husks fray.

Over the past 10 years I have made it my personal mission to seek out these weary travelers and to open my home as a sanctuary for them. Here they are restored to a place of honor among the bamboo, tiki mugs, and exotic rum bottles to be enjoyed and appreciated by all.

Portrait and subject

A saintly effort, and worthy of support. How can you help the Coconut Monkey Project? You can buy Atomikitty’s fabulous coconut monkey portraits — each print that is purchased can support up to five coconut monkeys for a year! You can also commision your own coconut monkey portrait, for that special coconut monkey in your life.

Of course, if you know of a coconut monkey in need of a home, you can send it to Atomikitty’s refuge, and rest well in the knowledge that it is leading a better life. If you have any doubts about Atomikitty’s sincerity, and her ability to provide a good tiki environment for these monkeys, know this: aside from being a stellar artist, she is a spiffy tiki bartender, and has served time behind the bar at both the Lucky Tiki and now the Tonga Hut in Los Angeles.

If you’d like to purchase one of Atomikitty’s truly lovely varnished and bamboo-framed coconut monkey prints, they’re available for sale at Yessy.com. If you’d like to keep up with the latest goings-on with the Coconut Monkey Project, check out the official MySpace and blog.

• The Coconut Monkey Project Portait Gallery [Yessy.com]
• The Coconut Monkey Project [MySpace]
• The Coconut Monkey Project Blog

Pokop Kambang, by Munktiki

I lovelovelove this new mug from Munktiki. It’s called Pokop Kambang; only Munktiki can say for sure, but it looks to me like they were heavily influenced by Papua New Guinea designs, which is probably a big part of why I am so enamored of it. They’re creating 100 of these in the color shown, which go for $50, to be followed by a very limited run of 25 more in a yet-to-be-announced glaze. WANT.

• Newest stuff [Munktiki]
• Pokop Kambang [Ooga-Mooga]

On Saturday, April 14, Judd’s Hill winery in Napa will be holding their First Annual Judd’s Hill Musical Bonanza. The lineup is pretty impressive: APE (quite possibly my favorite tiki band), King Kukulele, and the Maikai Gents featuring the Mysterious Miss Mauna Loa (that’s the Judd’s Hill house band, of sorts, with Judd himself on vocals). If that isn’t enough, there’s food — barbecue prepared by National Champion Barbecuer Pat Burke. And of course, there will be wine — the debut of Judd’s Hill’s 2005 Old Vine Zinfandel. Yum!

The event is a benefit for Arts Council Napa Valley, a non-profit organization that supports arts education and development. Ticket price is $70 for Judd’s Hill Wine Club members (join the Wine Club at the Judd’s Hill website), or $85 for non-members. To make a reservation, talk to Pat at Judd’s Hill: (707) 255-2332.

It’s happening at Judd’s Hill’s new winery; they moved last year from St. Helene into a beautiful new winery, and we got to see it a few months ago. It’s so beautiful — they’ve got a few tikis onsite, too. It’s a great event in a great setting, and we’re hoping to be there ourselves.

Judd’s Hill Musical Bonanza
Noon - 4pm
2332 Silverado Trail
Napa, CA

• Judd’s Hill
• Musical Bonanza! April 14, Napa Valley: APE, King Kukulele, Maikai Gents, Wine & BBQ [Tiki Central]

Tiki Farm’s annual parking lot sale is coming up this weekend, on Saturday, April 14, from 9am-3pm. It all goes down in the parking lot at Tiki Farm’s HQ in San Clemente, and it’s a great way to see where the magic happens, and also take home some great tiki mug deals. In addition to special Tiki Farm deals, there will be a couple dozen tiki-centric vendors, including Bamboo Ben, Crazy Al, Velvet Glass, BarTiki, Ken Ruzic, Chongolio, Tiki Magazine, Monkeyman and Doug Horne. Many of the vendors have posted examples of what they’ll be bringing on Tiki Central, and it’s a pretty impressive lineup of goods. The event also includes a free concert by the Glasgow Tiki Shakers. Be sure to get there early and get the best deals!

Saturday, April 14, 9am-3pm
Free admission
1305 Calle Avanzado
San Clemente
Call (949) 940-1006 for more info

• Tiki Farm’s Parking Lot Sale this Saturday - HUGE!!! [Tiki Central]
• Tiki Farm

A battered sail from the Kona Luanii

Fountain, tikis and tiki birds
in a corner of the Kona Luanii

I’ve mentioned ZuluMagoo’s Denver home tiki bar in passing, when pointing out his amazingly spot-on Enchanted Tiki Room birds. It’s turning out so well, the whole room deserves to be showcased. It’s still just under development, and all the photos so far have the dreaded ambience-killing flash, but it’s already awe-inspiring. I cannot wait to see pictures of this bar once it’s completed and he can take some beauty shots.

The attention to detail, combined with a fab sense of design and a great use of different textures, makes the Kona Luanii stand out already. The scale of the items being used is just right — not too big, not too small; I can almost hear the gasps of surprise people will be uttering when they enter this space for the first time. The bar is themed in a nautical-meets-tiki style, and has a whole backstory… this is the shipwreck of the Kona Luanii, which sailed around the world, bearing tiki cargo to great Poly Pop restaurants everywhere. The room looks darned-near seaworthy. It’s chockablock with riggings, pulleys, masts, lanterns, lots of rope, and of course a beautiful figurehead. The tiki elements are well done, too, and are very inspired by the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland.

Be sure to look through the Tiki Central thread for the Kona Luanii, where ZuluMagoo is posting his progress pictures, including some step-by-step work.

Barrels of rum, coconut milk and pineapple juice

• The Kona Luanii, Denver, CO (home-bar) [Tiki Central]
• Homemade Enchanted Tiki Room Birds [Humu Kon Tiki]
• The Kona Luanii, Denver [Critiki]

Papua New Guinea tiki at Xanadu Gallery

This past weekend, we stumbled across a little gallery that has a wonderful collection of Papua New Guinea art. It’s called Xanadu Gallery, and it’s in Menlo Park, just north of Stanford University. It’s owned by the same fellow who is part owner of the Palo Alto Trader Vic’s, and he was responsible for the Papua New Guinea art on display there. That makes three different spots full of Papua New Guinea art, all within just a couple of miles: the Trader Vic’s, the sculpture garden at Stanford, and Xanadu Gallery. The Stanford sculpture garden is unrelated to the other two.

Most of the art was from Papua New Guinea, but there were also examples of Tahitian and Marquesan art, including a gorgeous outrigger canoe. There were tikis, masks, war clubs, drums, canoes… just an overwhelming array of gorgeous tiki art. About 1/2 - 1/3 of it was for sale, the rest is part of the owner’s private collection. I’ve posted a bunch of pictures in a thread on Tiki Central, and also at Humuhumu’s Life in Photos. There is another Xanadu Gallery location in San Francisco with even more art, hopefully I’ll get a chance to check it out soon.

• Xanadu Gallery
• Trader Vic’s, Palo Alto [Critiki]
• Papua New Guinea Sculpture Garden, Palo Alto [Critiki]
• Xanadu Gallery, Menlo Park [Critiki]
• Xanadu Gallery — more PNG art on the San Francisco Peninsula [Tiki Central]
• Papua New Guinea Art in Menlo Park [Humuhumu's Life in Photos]
• Papua New Guinea Tikis at Stanford University [Humu Kon Tiki]

Tiki Wonderland at Tonga Hut

After the huge success of last month’s shindig at the Tonga Hut, they’ll be throwing another soiree, on Saturday, December 16, from 7 p.m. to midnight. It’s a mug release party and a one-night-only art show. Two mugs will be debuted there: Tiki Farm’s new Marqo Pollo mug by Señor Calamar (a.k.a. Squid), and Tiki Diablo’s new Dia de los Marquesos mug. There will be art on display by Bosko, Atomikitty, Crazy Al, Derek Yaniger and more. I suspect there will be a return of Grog’s stupefying art rocks, as he’s organizing the event — be sure to get yours. There will be some drink specials, and better yet — they’re making sure to have an extra bartender on hand, dedicated to making tropical drinks all night long (apparently, there was a tragic tropical drink shortage at last month’s event). Tonga Hut is at 12808 Victory Blvd. in North Hollywood. It’s already looking like there’s going to be a great turnout of fun tiki-lovin’ people.

• Christmas Mug Release and Artshow at the Tonga Hut Dec. 16 [Tiki Central]
• Tonga Hut, North Hollywood [Critiki]
• North Hollywood: Tiki Magazine Party at Tonga Hut [Humu Kon Tiki]

Scott & Thayer’s Bamboo Crazyness

My friends Scott & Thayer recently picked up this remarkable piece of furniture from an Asian decor warehouse that is going out of business. It’s a sort of chaise longue, made of bamboo that is twisted around into something grotesque. It looks to me like a chair H. R. Giger might create if he was asked to do decor for a tiki bar. Bamboo doesn’t bend well after it has been harvested, so most furniture is made from the similar looking, but bendable, rattan. This bamboo likely bent as it grew, and the most gnarled bits are likely bamboo roots. Thayer says the invoice called the chair “BAMBOO CRAZYNESS,” which sounds about right.

• Bamboo Crazyness [Tiki Central]

Sculpt for Severed Head mug, by Nacho

Bay Area artist Nacho (who was responsible for the massive and awe-inspiring Ku tiki bar seen at Forbidden Island’s sale event and at Viva Las Vegas) has created this stunningly faithful reproduction of the famous Ren Clark Severed Head mug. What is even more impressive is that Nacho has never actually seen the mug in person; he was able to create this sculpt using only photographs of the mug he found online. I think that Nacho’s version is actually an improvement — the shaping of his face is more realistic without losing its style, and has cleaner shaping and details. I can’t wait to see it in mug form — Nacho plans to paint it as true to the original as possible, right down to the pink and red blood drips. Aside from Nacho’s obvious sculpting skills, he’s an experienced painter, specializing in hot rods and classic cars.

Nacho is dropping off the sculpt this week to be turned into a mold; he hopes to be able to produce as many as 150 of this mug, and will be selling it exclusively on Tiki Central. He is also producing his own, sinister take on Tiki Bob, which will be sold through eBay. You can see more photos of Nacho’s takes on the Severed Head and Tiki Bob in this album on Humuhumu’s Life in Photos.

• Nacho’s Mug Sculpts [Humuhumu's Life in Photos]
• Tiki Scores and Nacho Bars at Forbidden Island [Humu Kon Tiki]
• Ren Clark Severed Head [Ooga-Mooga]

Illustration by Onno Knuvers

Tiki Bob’s logo

I’ve sometimes been heard to disparage certain tiki designs as being too “cartoony,” but this actually is not my complaint. Great, goofy, stylized tiki designs have been around since the start of the tiki craze, as exemplified by the logo for Tiki Bob’s in San Francisco, which I love. Of course, the appeal of stylized tikis varies greatly — there are people who can’t stand the Tiki Bob design (hi Pablus!), just as I can’t stand a lot of the stylized designs I see.

Well, here is a goofy, cartoony tiki design that I love. Four of them, in fact! New Zealand-based illustrator Onno Knuvers says he quickly put this together for his portfolio. The colors chosen and the style give it a fun mid-’60s look without feeling like an obvious, cliched attempt at something “retro.” That is probably a large part of the appeal for me. They’re instantly recognizable as tikis, but they still manage to be a fresh take on tiki design. Most of all, they’re just well done by a talented illustrator.

Knuvers’ blog is fairly new, and he doesn’t have any other tiki work on it (indeed, he seems to indicate that this was done as a bit of a lark).

• Tikis [Onno Knuvers]
• Tiki Bob’s, San Francisco [Critiki]

Wahahine, by Miles Thompson

Miles Thompson is one of my favorite artists. His sense and use of color and shapes is reminiscent of another favorite of mine, Mary Blair. This piece is titled Wahahine, and it’s a monster at 4′ x 2′. It was part of the recent Tiki Art Now III show at Roq la Rue in Seattle, and it’s sold. In its very shrunken form here, you’re missing all kinds of Milesy goodness — click on it to see it a bit bigger. Go on, do it. I haven’t seen this one in person, but I’m sure it’s breathtaking — the color and detail on Miles’ stuff never really comes through unless you’re seeing it in person.

At first glance, Miles’ pieces can seem simple, even cartoonish (he does have a background in animation, after all), but as any animation fiend will tell you, there can be a lot buried beneath the surface. Miles’ compositions look casual, but their is a lot of intent in each one, and stories to be found in them. In one of Miles’ earlier tiki pieces, he painted a very simple nighttime skyline of Waikiki using just a few strokes of paint — and it instantly transported me to the Waikiki nights I knew as a child many, many years go.

Miles is also one of my favorite people — when I was new to Los Angeles, Miles and his friends were one of the very first groups to take me in as one of their own, which was an incredible stroke of luck for me. Not only did it open up all sorts of fascinating and wonderful things to me (like getting to meet and sit for the most astounding artists, like Michael Hussar and Kevin Llewellyn, and of course Miles himself), but his friendship was a much needed rudder for me as I figured my new life out. Whether it was over instant messenger or over drinks at Tiki-Ti (always a Chi-Chi for Miles, and on the rocks, ever since the Great Tiki-Ti Power Outage of Ought-Four), Miles has always been there for me, with an ear, a shoulder, and wise, wise words.

To see more of Miles’ work, visit his blog, or his website, or his MySpace page. At the moment, Miles has a photo atop his blog of some mysterious woman with one of his tank tops stretched across her tatas (or, as Miles insists, her “beautiful bosom”). They sure look familiar…

• Miles Thompson [official website]
• Miles’ Thing [Miles Thompson's blog]
• Miles Thompson [MySpace]
• Mary Blair
• Seattle: Tiki Art Now III [Humu Kon Tiki]

The Alibi in Portland, photo by Ace Jackelope

Ace Jackelope, a.k.a. Tikijackelope, is a kindred spirit, if ever I’ve encountered one. He travels the nation, visiting the best Americana ‘murica has to offer — especially tiki places — taking pictures all the way. His latest tiki-flavored adventure brought him to the northern wilderness of my youth, the Pacific Northwest. He’s taken some wonderful photos (pictures that handily trump the many I’ve taken) of the Alibi in Portland and the Islander in Seattle, and got a sneak peek at Portland’s Thatch. He also grabbed a few pics of the recently-closed Tiki Art Now show that was at Roq la Rue in Seattle. Special Lake Wobegon bonus: another recent post on his blog features Ace Jackelope sitting on the head of Garrison Keillor.

• Northwest Tiki [The Lope]
• The Alibi, Portland [Critiki]
• The Islander, Seattle [Critiki]
• Thatch, Portland [Critiki]
• Seattle: Tiki Art Now III [Humu Kon Tiki]

The Gracious Host, by Heather Watts

The fourth annual New Tiny Tiki Lounge Group Show is happening at Lucky Red Gallery in Vancouver, B.C.’s Chinatown on December 9. Lucky Red is a tiny little speck of a gallery, and was formerly a one-car garage. Today it has been transformed into a tikified getaway, with bamboo and thatch — and of course art, with one-night-only shows. Artists for the show have not been announced (a call for artists went out just a couple days ago), but it’s likely that Vancouver-based tiki art superstar Heather Watts will be represented (above is her 2004 piece, The Gracious Host). For more details, visit 12midnite.com, the website of Lucky Red owner & curator, 12 Midnite. While you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to check out Funhouser Decor — they’re a great local source for your home tiki bar needs (it’s where the Tiki Bar TV gang shops).

• 12 Midnite [Owner & operator of Lucky Red Gallery]
• The Gracious Host [Heather Watts]
• Funhauser Decor
• Funhauser Decor, Vancouver, B.C. [Critiki]
• Tiki Bar TV