new new new tiki pianting!

Yes, you should have come to Oasis! I dig the monkeys calling out "cheerio"! At least that's my interpretaton. I think the thing I like best about your paintings is that they are so interpretable. Thanks for sharing, Miles!

A-A

thanks A! i like to try and embellish as much as i can - flesh out a story with characters in action - many people have accused me of overpainting - whatever - "great art is never finished merely abandoned" - Leo D

thanks for the feedback everyone!

S W E E T!

Pink is good.

Beautiful as usual, goache, oil, graphite you kill em all.

Miss you man, I need a ray's mistake....sometime soon...

pink IS good - thanks you guys and gals for looking!

Miles I see you a lot in Juxtapoz and most of the time you are next to camille rose Garcia.

uuuuuuuuuuuuh
i've been in a picture or two with her there, yeah - she's great i think - cerepy but stunning graphic quality - cool - that pic was snapped at la luz during a book signing for the pop pluralism publication which i am not in at all...but there i was!

Miles U suk

On 2006-06-27 20:11, FLOUNDERart wrote:
Miles U suk

"You're an animator, stop waisting paint!" (GROG read that somewhere).

Good stuff, dude. GROG like.

--------GROG
(also an animator who waists paint now and then)

Well that's an EXCELLENT Waste of paint in My book. REally Sweet one Kooch.

Ben - thanks man! i appreciate that!
Grog - thank you as well - animators are many as are paitners and most of them "suck" in one regard or another just like Flouder

Kooche - I'm REALLY diggin' these new pieces. In that first "pink" one I can feel the wind - like it's an old, salty sea captain waiting for the ships to return on a cold nantucket morning.

You capture the emotion very well. What else ya gotcookin?

Yeah that Flouder guy does suck at paitning.

The Spell Check button------the mostt overlookd buton onTikii Centrl.

Sorry you spilled red wine on your nice drawings, Miles. Maybe next time
you'll put them away BEFORE you start drinking. :D

GROG

Grog - ain't no winos 'round these here parts man - in fact i have no taste for beer or wine...just liquor for me thanks kindly - boy oh boy those hombres at the Tiki Ti have know how like WOW

drunk and disorderly again Flounder you arsonist? you said it man not me!

mahalo Polynesiac!

'Yo Miles,

Got a show coming up soon here in L.A.?
GROG want to see some more Kooche art
in person.

Sept 07 at La Luz - over a year away and i am working hard as i can - i'm planning on painting 3-4 sealife portrature pieces that will look a bit wylandy mashed into a sort of kind of "surfy mcmurph murph murph bingo bongo beachblanket be-bop be go go swingers martini harmonicat eating mad mad monster monster slow-low truck trade spoke stoked tryke bike hike taco sip and boom bam!bam! bip hop" thing happening ... aka "tiki"

see you in a bit Tujungan! only YOU can prevent forest fires so please give a hoot CA!

Miles,
your work amazes me! It's so great to have someone so friendly and approachable and so gracious with sharing new work,Looking forward to the La Luz show.How many pieces are you have up? Your style and quirky narratives are the craziest! A question on those gouache and wood pieces-It doesn't look like you use a gesso ground as I can see the wood's natural coloring...Do you just seal the heck out of the finished piece?What's your secret?Is the wood all sanded so it acts like a ground for the gouache?Keep on keeping on and thanks for sharing existing and works in progress!

rock and roll my friend!

i couldn't tell you how many pieces i'll have time to do between now and then exactly. all i can say is that i am experimenting a lot with new materials - like graphite - i am buildng a narrative onto the paintings as i go

no gesso - bald wood so if you nail the transfer it's a snap ... the wood makes anything look great much like the teastained paper everyone is using to classify their drawings or paintings as antiquated ... thanks!

Miles,
Love the fact that you're pushing your talent by experimenting.If you ever get bored-take watercolor paper-but some of that (bleeding) tissue paper-cut out some shapes -put it on top of the paper and wet brush it down-let dry and lift.You can overlap colors and the wetness gives it a nice blended feel! And when colors overlap you get that secondary color in there! From there you can work over the paer "cause it's like the paper is dyed by the colored tissue paper! Have fun,and if you try it-post one!

Great work as usual!

Am I correct that you are expanding or evolving your style and subject matter beyond the surf, hawaii, tiki world? I notice on your blog more realistic portrait type art.
Even one of your blog posts is titled: "NO MORE TIKI ART!"
Or have you always done this type of art but never had it on your website?
Looks good!

[ Edited by: ToonToonz 2006-06-29 15:11 ]

i am in the midst of a growth spurt for sure and I'm loving it ...thanks for the encouragement!

the real problem with doing tiki art is that we as a community are vagabonds and hobos with no money whatsoever... NONE! (maybe that has something to do with the fact that we are all artists at heart here?) paintings that sell for $250 (keep in mind as an artist showing in a gallery 50% of that goes to the hand that paints) are priced too low (as in lowbrow) to feed a family ... but having said that i am the kind of guy that spends maybe $3500 a year on art and i expect to get 3 pieces for that much...most folks see a measly $250 painting (YES I SAID MEASLY $250) as a whopping misappropriation of funds especially the straight men in the world and those are the people who'll push an artist for what i call a "bro-deal" - well after painting 75 plus tiki images and selling to collectors and more than a couple of celebs i am not interested in bro-dealing anymore - i want to paint whatever it is i feel like at that moment ... i say no more tiki art as have many who are over painted and undersold for years in a row (aka Flounder) ... it sucks - you come one the scene - you get to know folks - they like you and you sell for peanuts and popcorn that make your lips smack and then the people who can't afford the art ask you to compromise the integrity of the previous sales by lowering the price bar for them - here's the real catch in the scenario ... IF you lower the cost then you make a friend at the expense of those who have paid a fair price for your art - if you DON'T undersell under the table then those who can't afford your paintings speak about the inflated ego and tired graphic nature of the art they once coveted - i saw it happen to Shag - it's BS... so now if someone wants a tiki piece i'll take a commission but that's it... i say no more tiki art but what i mean is no more freebees... i still dig tiki i just hate being loved up by people that want something for nothing that'll kiss and tell tales about cost after they get a discount... i can't fault someone for trying to save a buck but i sure don't have to cater to them either - i buy art i LIKE and want to hang rather than expecting to get a return on it - after 5 years of painting tiki art i think it's fair to fold - yes - it's been that long!

then there is this - "make prints" or "make shirts" so you do one or both and maybe you pre-sell and take names on a list and then when the product show up almost nobody is actually interested in BUYING they just wanted to appear supportive and enthused about the scene - this leaves an artist FLAT BUSTED and the funny part about it is folks imagine you as all loaded and successful because you sold a few paintings and can afford to make prints or shirts ...it's futile and it's enough to make an artist's attitude change - my prints are so beautiful you almost can't tell that they are repros but most people expect to get an original for $200-$250 - fat chance baby! i have a box full of guys and gals shirts which are BOUND to be collectors items in my studio that i give to friends and visitors ...i won't stop painting just because most tiki exotica fans can't afford my art - hell i can't afford my art so cry me a river and i'll use your salty tears as solvent to save $

coulda shoulda woulda kids - the iron was hot 5 years ago - thanks for the support ESPECIALLY to SIRGINN!

Well said Miles!
An artist should be an ambassador of his times as well as a well-read translator of his own inner-dialogues and should always be in motion.Look at any artist of merit and you see their range in terms of both subject manner as well as an evolving style.What you said hit home in a lot of areas.Bro-Deals truly do suck.It's mostly a lonely journey,where you have to filter what you hear on the outside and what your innards tell you.The true friends are the ones you don't expect anything from-they're the ones you GIVE paintings to (for birthdays/holidays/etc.)Everyone else must be examined.Certain "periods" of an artist's career will attract certain admirers.An artist needs to expand his fan base in order to grow.Certain subject matter can then be abandoned for the moment in an artist's visual vocabulary.Growth, career-wise seems like a very hard thing.First, there's the new costs for promotion/better supplies/prints (around $500 a scan if you want a truly classy and professional print-and that's just the scan!) Miles, you've worked hard to get where you're at, you didn't get there by luck,very few do.It takes a committed effort and lots of time,which sucks if you wanna paint sometimes!You are a true artist.If you decide to explore other subject matter,good luck to you.Knowing your love for tiki,it may pop up in other forms later.Us tiki fans should be grateful for all the paintings you've done already and how much joy you've brought to us all! Mahalo and much success wherever your crazy artist mind takes you!

kooche - Good for you! I agree 100%.

Are you going to paint under a different name than kooche?
I have a nice selling line of art I do and about 7+ years ago I started signing those paintings under a different name (and started up a website under that name). Even though I like that art I didn´t want to be "tagged" or labeled as the guy that ONLY paints that subject matter.

The market for new Tiki paintings is tiny, tiny, tiny. (Unfortunately.)

A small anecdote: I was invited to exhibit some tiki original paintings at an weekend event a few weeks ago. Lots of young, hip people in their mid 20´s to 30s. My wife and I were a bit late in hanging the art and so had quite a few people attending the event come up and talk to us about the art. They really liked it - lots of positive feedback: fun, colorful, cool, wild, humorous, how much is it?.
We had not put the price tags up on the Tiki art and so we started asking people what they would pay for the painting they were interested in. Mostly people said around $100; a couple as high as $200.
We finished hanging a the art an did not put any price tags up on the paintings- we realized it was a waste of time. After hanging the paintings we left and had a fun weekend siteseeing in the area and came back at the end of the event and picked up our paintings.

[ Edited by: ToonToonz 2006-06-30 09:30 ]

humble thanks...what more can i type? your support is making my day...i'm drawing up a storm over here and the amount of time i find to paint is less and less because i'm planning the next 5-15 years of my life in painting by drawing. honestly, if not LONGER...but i am enjoying it and for many reasons it seems easier now that i have truly let my tiki go and started writing about with my paitnings ...the art is the same in that i'm socializing with ancient cultures AGAIN - phraternizing with the Glowing Grooving Holy Rollers of the earth's heavely cultures from areas unknown to me - China - Mexico - Spain

tiki finds us all! to those of you that would begrudge me an opportunity to express my joi de vivre in regards to my family life or artistic endeavors and all the merit that's included therein i nod and wave like a velvet airbrushed dash-bobbler and not a shit taker or talker

ME WE!

Miles-

Digging the graphite, and your portraits are getting insane.

Can't wait to see what you come up with for La Luz.

And, by the way, as far as I am concerned the iron still is hot. Your art (tiki or not)gets more attention at the house than the Shags, rydens, glenn barr, etc...

I wish you success, which I am sure will come with the La luz show, but the paintings we have were not and will never be for investment, they are for our viewing pleasure, and bring happiness to our home everyday.

dude you cut me deep man

we need to surf - i am wet tomorrow in OC! BOOOMING 4TH TO YOU!

speaking of glenn barr i am going to MAUI the day homegirl's show opens @ BSFA - so will i be at at the preview with you to see all the fucking amazing girly robotronic religion whooped hipster madness and the gary pressmans of the art petri dish? perhaps a drink and some revisiting of old friends can be arranged prior to the art viewing at the tiki ti???

a lowrider tricycle to you and your youngish man! ALWAYS!CALL ME!

What, all this time, I thought Glenn was a male painting.

glenn has a penis and not vagina