Tiki Central / Tiki Gallery / The Lurid Low-Brow "Tiki Art" of Brad Tiki-Shark Parker
Post #697793 by Tiki Shark Art on Tue, Oct 29, 2013 2:08 AM
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Tiki Shark Art
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Tue, Oct 29, 2013 2:08 AM
Aloha Tiki Tribe! My tiki Brothers & tiki Sisters I have a tiki tale to to tell you. In 60 years of business, Body Glove had never produced a tiki mug. NEVER. This was Body Glove's 60 year Anniversary! We beat out such brands as Nike and Billabong. It was a monster movie: sort of "the Body Glove pro-surf team" meets "the Creature from the Black Lagoon" done in a "the Blair Witch Project" style. The set of three Tiki-Mugs are...
I designed mugs so complex I thought no one could recreate all their detail. So, after seeing how great the mugs came out, my art agent, Abbas, thought we should have a tiki-mug release party to help sell mugs. My Art-gent talked the people from Body Glove into coming - the Meistrell Family; who have owned the brand for 3 generations... to come help sign mugs, and tee shirts, and art prints. Wed night October 23rd. A special V.I.P. Body Glove Cruise was held... Thursday night October 24th, we opened the party at the Royal Kona Resort. The Royal Kona Resort respond by making a special "CREATURE Cocktail", ~(with Beach Bum Berry's help I heard) ~ Still, my art-agent, Abbas, was not done yet. Special Body glove Sea Creature Tee-shirts to mark the event were made and sold. The Royal Kona Resort hired one of the best Hawaiian hula dance troops to perform an ancient Hawaiian blessing, Then the Mayor of the Big island's office came and gave a speech about how happy and honored the Big island was to have Body Glove here. Then the Governors office came and spoke at length how happy they were We had brought Body glove to the Big Island. They presented us with an Official Proclamation stating that now and forever, October 24th is "BODY GLOVE DAY IN HAWAII" Then, my art-agent, Abbas got Grammy-nominated, & highest-record-selling-Hawaiian-performer; Henry KAPONO to give a "FREE to the public" concert that night of the party. Henry changed his touring schedule to be there! Then, the president of Body Glove, Russ Lesser, came with his "Surf Music Band" to play for free, (after Kapono.) Nice. Then, Body Glove hired local music legend "L.T. Smooth" to fill out the evening's music - which he did, with 5 ..or maybe it was 7, ovations! Anyways, it was amazing. thousands of people came, October 24th, Thursday night. EVEN... The Body Glove SEA-CREATURE (guy in a Hollywood monster suit used in the film ) I was interviewed twice in the morning drive show, and got to talk to Hawaii about "Tiki-Art and Tiki Culture". When you give to the Big Island community , they really give back. The Aloha was tremendous. Then we did it all AGAIN a 2nd night at the "Wyland Kona Oceanfront Gallery". On behalf of the Wyland Gallery & their defense, they did (& continue to do) a amazing job for us. First they showed my low-brow tiki-art back when no gallery would touch me. Now they display me in their front window, and their staff understands terms like "low-Brow" And Kitchy, and TIKI-Culture. I can tell u for a fact that our little sleepy fishing village of Kailua-Kona does not experience events of this importance, historic significance, and scale very often! A couple of items may have fell thru the cracks but were well taken care off in the end.They had NEVER done anything like this. The Big island had never done anything like this. And it kept getting bigger and bigger as we went - ever growing and changing like a kaiju coming up from the depths of the Pacific Ocean. It was a huge event. It caused traffic jams on the main road. It shook the trees and "a few nuts fell out" ... (and yes one of the biggest nuts was me - for sure!) ...but nothing compared to the love and support and Aloha that most everyone showed us. Then, on October 25th, Friday night, we did it all again... Except, this time Mayor Billy Kenoi of the Big Island came himself to shake our hands and give us another I also created a original piece of Surf-Art : Body Glove owner Bill Meistrell donated (gave ... for FREE) a SURF Board from Body Glove, used in the 80's by the Surf Team in competition, and then hand painted by me, on and off for about 2 years till if told me it was a finished piece of "Tiki-Art" and Surf history. IT SOLD that night. Both nights we had a really great local bakery made cake...Gallery ordered "Banana Creme" my favorite! There was also a local artist named J. Tiki Who created lamps out of the Tiki Mugs. Really cool! "HA HA HA! to all those snooty galleries who told me "Tiki is dead"... years ago! Guess not, huh?!" It was amazing! Big Aloha nui loa Tiki Tribe!!! http://damontucker.com/2013/10/25/body-glove-turns-60/ — at Royal Kona Resort. [ Edited by: tiki shark art 2013-10-29 04:45 ] |