Post #624304 by Swanky on Thu, Feb 9, 2012 9:40 AM

On 2012-02-08 18:31, stonetiki wrote:
...strive to be DIFFERENT-  people will associate your style with YOU,- not mention another artists name that yours reminds them of....................     strive to be ORIGINAL!                                   
-W

Sounds like very good advice to me.

If you have been in FL at all, you have likely seen many many Mai Tiki rip offs. They are so plentiful that you at first think Wayne must be huge down there. Then you go look for the mark of Mai Tiki and realize these are not his work. They are just some other copy cat who is ripping him off. Wayne does have his style, like it or not, and it is popular in FL. And many people started making rip offs and he can't even keep up with them any more. When Home Depot was selling them, he did stop them.

So, if you want to know why is is so POed, just drive around and stop at every "Mai Tiki" you see and see if it really is one. Then you will understand how much he has lost to the rip-offs. If he got the money for every copy out there, he would be doing great!

And how many people have come to his shop and then gone home and made Mai Tiki copies? A bunch. Some he used to employ. It is a touchy subject with him. And it would be with you too if you drove around seeing rip offs of your work in front of every Ron Jon and restaurant and car dealership within a 200 mile radius... Shag has a legal team to stop the copies. Wayne does not.

Be original!