Post #528332 by Babalu on Thu, May 6, 2010 8:44 AM

Thanks for taking that shot for me in Prague Big Bro...it's kind of a haunting image, but nicely done. That Hina and the eel painting is very cool...my eye was drawn to it right away in that picture you posted of your living room. I like the way the landscape (the water and the mountains) and the figures alternate colors as the paintings story moves from left to right. I also like the way the image of the sun breaks the square of the border frame and continues on. Seeing an eel or a sea snake in a Polynesian design makes more since to me...this kinda brings up another topic which I haven't seen anybody talk about yet - the design of this Islander Cobra Fang Mug...

Though this Islander Cobra Fang Mug's design is very iconic in Polynesian Pop, it is definitely a cross over design. What's interesting to me is that this design is very classic of something Old World European / Art Nouveau. I mean, yes, you've got cross over designs from Africa and other areas of the world, and they seem to fit 'design wise' a little better in the PolyPop spectrum, but this cobra design really comes out of left field as a player. As far as I know right now, this might be the only Art Nouveau cross over image associated with Polynesian Pop? In my searches for pictures of Cobras to use as reference, I've learned a little about them. For one, they seems to be present in every corner of New Guinea, but nadda anywhere else in the rest of the Pacific island chain. Anyway, here are a just 'few' examples (there are many, many more)of some really fine snake image Art Nouveau craftsmanship...

Now this snake drum below is definitely PNG in style...it could, should, and will be made into a mug design at some point :)