Post #197941 by hewey on Mon, Nov 14, 2005 7:05 AM

I think BK has a good point, and his intentions are in the right place.

I also think it came across as negative and discouraging to new carvers/artists. We need to support newbies (and oldies too), not whack em over the head and say "thats not how I like my tikis!"

I know there are some artists whose work I love, who arent gonna post on here cause they dont feel the love, and that gives me the sh**s. I would definitely say these people carve "tikis" and not "caribbean" or other such things. Hell, I found out about this through another thread of a carver whos stated they're through. Thats not right, and really has pissed me off.

I wouldnt say I have a great knowledge of tiki and its history. I have the BoT, and thats about it. All of my tiki fix is through that and TC. God forbid i fool around and come up with my own intrepretation. Hell, tiki culture for me is based upon anothers country's retro/nostalgia culture, the original basis for this itself was based upon thinly disguised and misguided romanticism. I dont think historical accuracy is exactly assured.

I think its a bit too anal to stress the whole "study the masters" point. Lighten up. I create tiki for kicks, to get away from my study. Having some person tellin me I need to study before I can do this kinda defeats the purpose of doing it to get away from studying.

Ill continue to post my tiki and (some) non-tiki art here. I love it when people dig my art, but try not to worry when people dont dig it. Hell, if i was going for popularity, I wouldnt be so into the whole tiki thing. It maybe good tiki, it maybe bad tiki. If you think its garbage tell me. Just make it constructive and Ill welcome it.

Its funny, cause Im a hypocrite. Ive spent this whole post attacking this thread, when I do agree with it to a large degree, and follow it myself (to some degree). I love lookin up tiki pics on the net and developing my artistic endeavors. So in a lot of ways, I do support the concept. Im just not so big on trying to keep stuff traditional.

The more I think about it, the thing that irks me the most is that some people I class as mates arent gonna post their art here, beacuse they dont feel welcome. That aint right, and pisses me off no end. Im sure this wasnt the aim, but its the result.