Please Fill me in on tiki artist Andres Bumatay - General Tiki

A akjefferson Member Joined: Jul 18, 2015 Posts: 7	A akjefferson Posted posted on Sun, Jul 19, 2015 10:37 PM On 2015-07-19 10:23, bigbrotiki wrote: I hope she is talking about the same Andres Bumatay - there are others with that name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Bumatai It seems strange that, while Tiki carver Andres Bumatay was most active and prolific in Southern California, the place is not mentioned in the bio. Meanwhile Hawaii and Washington state are cited as his home - but next to no Bumatay Tikis have been documented in the those states. The only explanation I have is that Andrea at first was not born, and then too young to remember the California Tiki craze, and that as the fad was waning, Andres/Andy moved away from SoCal, and reduced his Tiki output. But there were so many Tiki apartment complexes around Seattle and Tacoma, one would assume that he would have gotten involved with at least 1 or 2 projects up there, many of which were partially supplied by Oceanic Arts, who knew Richard Ellis and Bumatay. But maybe this bio explains why he disappeared and was never heard of :) I stumbled across this website when I googled "Andres Bumatay", to find my brothers obituary to print a picture, his name was Andres Bumatay Jr., he died in 2010 and he is buried next to my dad and they share a headstone together. So, it is definitely by accident that I found Tiki Central. You can trust that this is absolutely a surprise out of no where to me. I had no idea that my dads tiki's have come this far in time. I looked at the blogs all day and all night, and when I looked at the newspaper clippings, it touched my heart and it immediately brought tears to my eyes, I sighed and said, it is my dad. He always rolled his pants tight at his boot collar or cut his pants to that length, he also cut the arms and around the neck of his t-shirts and sweatshirts. I asked my aunt questions about my dad today, she told me that my dad carved tiki's in California before I was born, when he was a bachelor. My father left Hawaii and went to California where he met my uncles from om my moms side, and he became like a brother to them. They brought my dad to Washington to where my uncles were originally from, he met my mom, and they were married. My aunt told me that his carvings were unique, and some people from California paid for his trip to go back to California to carve some tiki's for there business. My aunt also said that my dad belonged to a tiki club and his carvings were in shows and many people wanted his carvings, and that was how he made his living, until he married my mom, settled down, had my sister and me, and worked a nine to five job and was at the same job until his retirement. My dad carved tiki's on his spare time, he had many talents, he was a carpenter, he was always building onto our house, he collected and restored classic cars, he made some of our furniture; bunk beds, dressers, and reupholstered our living room furniture. He carved a tiki for my sister and me when I was 4 and it's stored with the family assets, with my step mom. The carving was about four or four and a feet tall. It is similar to all of his work but the carving had two round like, end tables or shelves, its kind of like the tiki is holding two round trays, one on top of the other. The top table was mine and the bottom one was my sisters. The mouth was wide, rectangular, and carved inward and your were able to put little things like jewelry or pencils etc... (this is the best I can do to describe it) and it stood on the side of our bunk beds. My thoughts are that my dad didn't talk about this part of his life because I was too young and it might of reminded him of my mom, she was his first love, and he loved her until the day he died. He did carve two tiki's for the Hawaiian night club that he and his band played music at, and a few other places, it was so long ago. He gave carvings as gifts to our relatives on a special occasion. One of my favorite carvings, that hung on the wall was a head and shoulder profile of a beautiful Hawaiian girl, she had long hair with a plumeria flower on the side of her head by her ear, and on her bare skin she wore a flower lei. My dad gave it to my Uncle and his wife as a wedding present for their brand new home. I will work on tracking down some of my dads carvings and hopefully, I can take pictures and/or get pictures to share with you. It will take some time and I wouldn't be able to begin this right away because my step mom lives in Seattle, she's really old school she doesn't use computers or smart phones and I live three hours north of Seattle, 18 mile south of the Canadian boarder. I am happy to share memories of my father... FYI, there are three Andy Bumatay's in my family, my dad, my brother and my 1st cousin who is a stand up comedian entertainer In Waikiki. Aloha & Mahalo Andrea Bumatay-Jefferson [email protected]

On 2015-07-19 10:23, bigbrotiki wrote:
I hope she is talking about the same Andres Bumatay - there are others with that name:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Bumatai

It seems strange that, while Tiki carver Andres Bumatay was most active and prolific in Southern California, the place is not mentioned in the bio. Meanwhile Hawaii and Washington state are cited as his home - but next to no Bumatay Tikis have been documented in the those states.

The only explanation I have is that Andrea at first was not born, and then too young to remember the California Tiki craze, and that as the fad was waning, Andres/Andy moved away from SoCal, and reduced his Tiki output.

But there were so many Tiki apartment complexes around Seattle and Tacoma, one would assume that he would have gotten involved with at least 1 or 2 projects up there, many of which were partially supplied by Oceanic Arts, who knew Richard Ellis and Bumatay.

But maybe this bio explains why he disappeared and was never heard of :)

I stumbled across this website when I googled "Andres Bumatay", to find my brothers obituary to print a picture, his name was Andres Bumatay Jr., he died in 2010 and he is buried next to my dad and they share a headstone together. So, it is definitely by accident that I found Tiki Central. You can trust that this is absolutely a surprise out of no where to me. I had no idea that my dads tiki's have come this far in time. I looked at the blogs all day and all night, and when I looked at the newspaper clippings, it touched my heart and it immediately brought tears to my eyes, I sighed and said, it is my dad. He always rolled his pants tight at his boot collar or cut his pants to that length, he also cut the arms and around the neck of his t-shirts and sweatshirts. I asked my aunt questions about my dad today, she told me that my dad carved tiki's in California before I was born, when he was a bachelor. My father left Hawaii and went to California where he met my uncles from om my moms side, and he became like a brother to them. They brought my dad to Washington to where my uncles were originally from, he met my mom, and they were married. My aunt told me that his carvings were unique, and some people from California paid for his trip to go back to California to carve some tiki's for there business. My aunt also said that my dad belonged to a tiki club and his carvings were in shows and many people wanted his carvings, and that was how he made his living, until he married my mom, settled down, had my sister and me, and worked a nine to five job and was at the same job until his retirement. My dad carved tiki's on his spare time, he had many talents, he was a carpenter, he was always building onto our house, he collected and restored classic cars, he made some of our furniture; bunk beds, dressers, and reupholstered our living room furniture. He carved a tiki for my sister and me when I was 4 and it's stored with the family assets, with my step mom. The carving was about four or four and a feet tall. It is similar to all of his work but the carving had two round like, end tables or shelves, its kind of like the tiki is holding two round trays, one on top of the other. The top table was mine and the bottom one was my sisters. The mouth was wide, rectangular, and carved inward and your were able to put little things like jewelry or pencils etc... (this is the best I can do to describe it) and it stood on the side of our bunk beds. My thoughts are that my dad didn't talk about this part of his life because I was too young and it might of reminded him of my mom, she was his first love, and he loved her until the day he died. He did carve two tiki's for the Hawaiian night club that he and his band played music at, and a few other places, it was so long ago. He gave carvings as gifts to our relatives on a special occasion. One of my favorite carvings, that hung on the wall was a head and shoulder profile of a beautiful Hawaiian girl, she had long hair with a plumeria flower on the side of her head by her ear, and on her bare skin she wore a flower lei. My dad gave it to my Uncle and his wife as a wedding present for their brand new home. I will work on tracking down some of my dads carvings and hopefully, I can take pictures and/or get pictures to share with you. It will take some time and I wouldn't be able to begin this right away because my step mom lives in Seattle, she's really old school she doesn't use computers or smart phones and I live three hours north of Seattle, 18 mile south of the Canadian boarder. I am happy to share memories of my father... FYI, there are three Andy Bumatay's in my family, my dad, my brother and my 1st cousin who is a stand up comedian entertainer In Waikiki.

Aloha & Mahalo

Andrea Bumatay-Jefferson
[email protected]

Post #747430 by akjefferson on Sun, Jul 19, 2015 10:37 PM