Post #672093 by abstractiki on Sun, Mar 24, 2013 9:14 AM

More Islander Artifacts Discovered!

Ok, here is the whole story. A few years ago when Michael Fitzgerald’s story on my Islander tiki research came out in the the Record newspaper a woman called Michael and said her husband had some of the islander paintings. Michael told me about it and said he would make arrangements and take me to see the paintings and meet this man. A few weeks went by and I made multiple attempts to get Michael to take me there but it never happened. I quit bugging him and I put it on the back burner. That is until last October when I found the Islander Moai. I called Michael and told him about my Moai discovery and we made a deal. I would take him to see the Moai and he would take me to see the paintings. I took him to the Moai last October and finally yesterday was the big day when he took me over to see the paintings. As it turns out these paintings haven been hanging up in a house about a mile away from the where the Islander once stood this whole time.

The women, Barbra used to work at Payless drug store in Lincoln center south across the parking lot from the Islander. Her and her husband Michael would often have drinks and dinner at the islander. One day when the old building was getting fixed up to get ready for the new owner, Dick De Grande, she walked over on her lunch hour. She said there was no one around and just walked right in. She saw these great paintings hanging up and went in to the bathroom, got some paper towels and wrote a note to the new owner asking if she could buy the paintings. A few moths went by and she got a call from Dick De Grande offering the paintings for sail. Her husband Michael who is 87 years old now bought six of them for about two hundred a piece he said. He gave one away to his brothers nephew and sold the other one.

They have a ton of art in their home and many more from Tyree. They later would meet him and go to several of his shows. Michael and Barbara have no intention of selling them. Both were happy to show them off to us and talk about them and the Islander.

Here are some pictures, all original by Tree Burke on velvet.

Happy hunting!