Post #354911 by bigbrotiki on Mon, Jan 14, 2008 5:23 PM

I'm glad. Maybe Tim is right: By printing this out rather than just mentioning the "What Tiki Central is about" link, things become clearer (And I want to ad that I had no direct influence on Hanford formulating these tenets of Tiki Central!).

I want to ad though that his recommendation to read my "Book of Tiki" was written by him when the book was still in print (in its 3rd printing), and now that it is out of print and costs +/- a hundred bucks on Amazon, he should ad that the small version of the BOT in Taschen's Icon format titled "Tiki Style" would make an inexpensive substitute. (It is no BOT though!)

I can only hesitantly recommend my new work "Tiki Modern" to the casually Tiki-interested, because it seems that only hardcore Tiki initiates are willing to boldly go where I am leading them with it: The art history of pop primitivism and modernist world of Witco.

Well, now that I am writing here again after I had thought I had said my piece, I cannot refrain to ad some information to this following post:

...but what I was most surprised about is the fact that there are business owners in here. They want your business, yet some of them feel the need to be outright mean in their comments. Now, instead of getting upset about what is said I look up info on them in the member list area. I find out the name of their business and I just don't buy from them. When they have said enough mean stuff and lose business they will move on. That is the power that you have. I think people forget it's all about customer service...

Tiki is not "all about customer service" (!?) While this might be true for sites dealing with doll collectibles or such things, I believe there are very few members here that are actually making a living of their Tiki activities (I know I am not). Most Tiki carvers and artists here are in it for the passion for the art form, which makes them kind of invincible to this sort of "justice". They rather share their work with people who appreciate style. It is not them being judged, but it is the buyer who with his choice decides "do I want classic Tiki" or "do I contribute to the new Tiki devolution".

Again, I really do not understand the defensiveness of people who insist on their "right" to declare things that are not Tiki as Tiki. Everyone can insist that a Renaissence vase is Art Deco, but that still does not make it so.