Post #242172 by Bay Park Buzzy on Mon, Jul 10, 2006 11:51 PM

Tiki #31: Inspired by Van Gogh
I remember going up to the Getty Museum in LA a few years back(LA=everything north of camp pendelton to oxnard in my mind). While I was there, I luckily got to see whatever Van Gogh they had for about three or four minutes without anyone around me. If you've been there, you know what a miracle that is. One of the things that really strikes you when you look at it is the utter perfection of the craft that Van Gogh obtained. There is just this quality of not one thing in a complex relationship of parts that is wrong, misplaced, or not utterly perfect in its decision and execution. Finally seeing a true master's piece, I really understood why some artists are called masters. It looked much better in person than on some chicks calendar in her dorm room, that's for sure.
On tiki #31, I furthered the precise chiseling goal that I set for myself on the last one, and continued to make that my new mo. This time, I kept playing the thought over and over in my head that my chisel was like a paintbrush, and each tap with my mallet was a brush stroke placed upon a canvas. As I struck each and every piece off, I thought of it as a painting, and asked myself if that was the best brush stroke to do, and if it was it right one to make. Van Gogh obviously had this down. The first time-no. After many tries-yes. Message received and understood. Keep trying...
This one was done at night, in my living room. I hated the couple of times that I carved in my garage, so I didn't really do it that much. I remember drawing it up in the evening and it was sitting in front of me by the tv. I kept looking and looking at the log, and the next thing I knew, it was on the floor being carved on the carpet.
Here it is after I started it:

I only carved it on the front half. I was going to leave it like this and split it. Then I thought of another tiki design, and I wanted to see how to engineer a more complex headress. This picture shows the front 180 of he log

When I run low on logs, all my tikis will be on one half of the log. Now I carved the whole log, because I had too many

I watched American Hot Rod tonight. Guess who was mad? That's right
BURNT!

here it is finished, two colors of stain, and BURNT, of course...


face close up

I was messing around one day, and I set it up like this in my backyard...

I was going to keep it like this, but then I sold two of them...I can always make more. I always do...
What I learned

1. I can sell my tikis for a fair amount of money in this condition.
2. I can sell my tikis for a larger amount in a better than this condition.(logical conclusion)
3. I need to sell more tikis
4. I need to make better tikis (I always say this)
5. That design thing that I tested out by carving the back: It will work if I adjust it slightly. I'm glad I tried it when it was less crucial.
6. Don't leave Tiki Oasis early on Saturday afternoon if your booth is slowing down: I almost did, second guessed myself, and sold this just before the end of the day. The people were out shopping, heard about Tiki Oasis, went on a whim, and bought my tiki-long after I wanted to leave for the day.