Post #694639 by Tiki Shark Art on Thu, Sep 26, 2013 3:14 AM

Aloha Tiki Tribe!

Here's a strange & weird tale about buying ART supplies on one of the most remote islands on da' globe.

I ramble on a bit, so feel free to skip this one. Not much art instruction in dis tale. Well I had to make a run to the ACE Hardware store today for ART SUPPLIES.... boy, it made that trip to BLICKS ART SUPPLIES in L A really stand out all the more in my head!

I needed a tube of white. White acrylic paint. A basic you cannot get around.

Don't know if you remember that one time, years ago, when Kona had this one little art store (yeah, a real "Art supply store") . It never quite had full shelf's of anything... and I went there to buy white acrylic paint... and they were all out!

The next shipment was in a month!

I would have to drive to the other side of the island to buy a tube of white acrylic paint! It was an hour before closing on Saturday, I was on a deadline to finish, and I was freaking out! Too funny... luckily, the poor frantic store owner found a strange little tub of acrylic paint in the store she didn't even know she had... a brand I'd never heard of, or seen ever again.... anyways it worked out, but that was my first big scare with limited art stores on an active volcano sticking outta' the Pacific Ocean!

That was when I was very new to the island.
I didn't have time to drive the hour or 2 to Hilo to buy a tube of white acrylic paint.

See I was new on da' Island, and I had not found the Ace hard ware... with the one isle of art supplies.

That old Art store has long since gone out of business!
One day, empty. No warning.
Kinda freaky.

There was a Benjamin Franklin if I drove up north, but that went outta business not too long after the Art Store! There was another ACE in the next town south...but that closed too!

So, now I got this ONE Ace Hard Ware. That's it. At least on this side of the island.

Anyways, it's September...and hey, looky-looky ... they got all the nifty Halloween stuff in ACE Hardware!

So, along with my jumbo tube of white clenched in my fist, and a few "0" gage brushes - (for back up ya' know, I Never never never want to be left high and dry with no good brushes ...again! That's a whole OTHER nightmare!) So, when I'm in Ace I always look to see if they have a "0" or a "1" in good shape and just buy it no matter what else I'm buying.

Hey, Sometimes they don't... the brush display can be empty! Creepy!

But, today's fine. Got white.
Got a back up brush or two... and then I decide to give the old Art-Studio a little spooky atmosphere. Make my Art muse happy ... it's already very Halloweenie ( Well, Hawaii-o-Weenie. ) most days in my toy monster and dinosaur littered studio, but ya' gotta' look.

Hey, hey, hey, now, Halloween is creeping into X-mas territory. Halloween now has "Halloween lights" ... my my ... just like Christmas Lights, but in weird sorta' non-X-mas colors ...green and purple. Wow, my favorite colors!! I buy some.

Clean up one of the Shelves. Sheesh, the dust was getting thick up there, so they all needed a good wipe down. Get rid of the dead, jumbo sized cockroaches, and dried up old geckos. Then I lay in some nice purple lights. One string, behind Godzilla. I got another blinking string of purple too, so maybe it might look like the flickering flames in a ruined city after a Kaiju Attack. Could be fun.
Here's how it came out...

Ok. What the box calls a Purple string of lights is really a Pink string of lights.
Pink lights.
Pink.
That well known, traditional, Halloween color... PINK.
Hmmm.
Okay.
A little bit of a surprise I gotta tell you.
Don't really know I'd put up pink lights for Halloween...
...or Godzilla.

The other company has "purple" lights that blink. String em up there, turn 'em on.... They are blue lights.
Blue.
That other Halloween color.

Oh, Jeepers Creepers!!

Hey, wait a second... yeah... won't the PINK and the BLUE light mix and make PURPLE light!
Right?
Ah...You'd think I'd know this stuff, me being an artist an all dat.

However, it ended up looking like pink lights with some blue lights blinking on and off.

Halloween?
Still, on the bright side, this whole thing made me clean up my studio a bit, and sweep out the dead cock-roaches and lizards!
That's always a good thing.
Big Aloha!
BP~

Brad's Imaginary Low-Brow-Art Muse Sez:
"If suddenly you stop hearing from Brad, it means that the traditional ...ah...pink Halloween lights got too hot & ignited a dried out dead gecko & burned the joint down."

Brad (Tiki Shark) Parker
"Brad Parker creates lurid paintings that pull in influences from tiki, comics, and rock."

• Honolulu Magazine "The Best Of" 2012 Issue
  
  http://youtu.be/7HTCkZXaA

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2013-09-26 22:56 ]