Post #468178 by GatorRob on Fri, Jul 10, 2009 3:53 PM

On 2009-07-09 10:36, AlohaStation wrote:
It is a reproduction. I'm not sure who did it.

Tom,

This doesn't answer your question as to who carved it, but here are a few more clues from Bob at OA:

When doing the Mai Kai job, George Nakashima and Florian Gabriel used a carver in Portland more than once and it might have been his. However we both agreed that the figure could very well have been by Barney West----not typical but has some similarities to a few he's done. In the end we think it was done by Barney West.

and:

there were so many carvers in the earlier years that unless you have an invoice one can't positively say it was from so and so carver.

And finally, this is related:

On 2005-01-27 16:49, bigbrotiki wrote:

"...Bob Thornton always chose professional Polynesian pop artists to expand on his realm, hiring George Nakashima and Florian Gabriel of Stephen Crane and Associates as art directors and using decor by Oceanic Arts in Whittier to give the Mai Kai that much claimed “authentic” touch..."

Although Sven's quote above mentions Bob Thornton, it's been my understanding that Jack Thornton did most of the design related ordering, while Bob tended to run the business side of things. But regardless, the winged tiki dates back to the late 50s when the Mai-Kai first opened (which still has me going WOW!) and anything that can be done to preserve it (like move it indoors!) or restore it would be well worth it.