Post #333674 by teaKEY on Thu, Sep 20, 2007 8:56 AM

"..ryden's work gives me nightmares!!-Tipsy"

The issue at hand is popularity. When I first came to Tiki Central, all I cared about was tiki. After looking around the site is was obvious that people strongly liked Exotic (Martin Denny), Rum, The Book of Tiki, and Shag. I wasn't here for that but became familiar with it and then agreed with liking the goodness of these things.

I think that more people talked about Shag, and his books, and his prints, and his mugs more then here than now. I bought a print (one without even a tiki in it) but I think that Shag isn't as important to tiki as he once was.

There are better artist out there, better tiki artist, but not more popular tiki artist and fewer popular artist in general making art today than Shag.

He did sell out and probably would with any sized paintings but the 6x6 in paintings are for sure going to sell. When you could only buy a original Shag for 9,000 and now get a real Shag for drop a zero off the end 900 (ok, 999) you buy it cause of the name attached. The size is kinda something new for Shag, even though his art looks the same.

Personally I think Shag working with B.B.B. is a cooler subject matter than anything else at Shags show. I think if you read into his painting too much, your losing the point too. I spend about 30 second max looking over and thinking about the subject matter. I think the paintings depth is as deep as the 3D look of the characters. But his work is a great exercise in colors that work well together and works together in your home.

BAck to populaty, I think the name Shag is less said around here at TC (and TC is a bigger fansite for Shag) than it once was. BenZart is a bigger buzz word here than Shag probably ever was/is.