Tiki Central / General Tiki
The Gallery of Regrettable Tiki Paint Jobs
S
SilverLine
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Tue, Apr 22, 2008 8:19 PM
I figured since it wasn't garishly painted, rather misunderstood or maybe even disguised, it wasn't a good fit. It made me laugh when I saw it. Nobody else had a clue what it really was. BTW, it's a 12-inch tall porcelain cigarette lighter that somebody painted a shirt and overalls onto. Here's he is again: |
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bigbrotiki
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Tue, Apr 22, 2008 9:28 PM
Well I think the above guy qualifies for a side genre of the "mistaken Tiki paint jobs", similar to the Tiki Bob and the Kona Kai Tiki in my very first post that began this thread. Maybe it is time to carefully introduce the subject of WHAT kind of paint job might actually be permissible on Tikis, or better, on Oceanic Art reproductions: Example Nr. 1: Taking cues from Papua New Guinea art, the paints were washed out earth pigment type of choices that were rubbed off again, AND enriched with dirt and dust -in essence expert "primitive art" forging. This piece's color scheme looks much more authentic than O.A.'s later "Night of The Tiki" phase. This is how this carving came off the shelf, it has been hanging INSIDE since I purchased it (most of the time). Example Nr.2: A.) B.) This fine looking Tiki trio actually stood/ is standing in Tahiti. Now I could not discern if the B.) look was actual paint, applied several coats later, or if it was a similar period photo than A.) that just had the hell colorized out of it in a photo shop program. In any case, In my opinion A.) probably would look acceptable once the initial paint job had become weathered, while B.) would never look good under any circumstances. This said, this style of Tiki should really not be painted at all. [ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2008-04-22 21:46 ] |
V
virani
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Tue, Apr 22, 2008 10:59 PM
Sorry. I didn't read well. Now, I was about to post about the tahitian trio, that I really like, even if yes, at some point, the paint was too bright. |
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ZuluMagoo
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Thu, Apr 24, 2008 3:44 PM
Here is my submission taken down in Pueblo, CO just last week. What a lovely shade of sky blue......?????? |
JT
Jungle Trader
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Thu, Apr 24, 2008 4:36 PM
Those are nice carvings Zulu. :cry: I wonder if the proprietors would sell them as is. |
MN
Mr. NoNaMe
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Thu, Apr 24, 2008 6:37 PM
Hey now, |
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bigbrotiki
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Thu, Apr 24, 2008 8:24 PM
Modern, for sure. It's a nice job, even if it is based on Tiki Devolution. While painting mid-century Tikis is just plain wrong, Tiki revival works are open to individual taste. It's not MY taste, and I hope that the crimes of the past are a warning example to a new generation of artisans, but ultimately it is out of my hands. :) |
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tikijackalope
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Thu, Apr 24, 2008 11:54 PM
Does anyone else think this one at Sam's Seafood (August 2005) is supposed to be wearing a tie? |
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bigbrotiki
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Fri, Apr 25, 2008 7:18 AM
Yiiiiikes! I can't say, I can't bring myself to look at this abomination long enough to decide, I have to avert my eyes. |
JT
Jungle Trader
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Fri, Apr 25, 2008 7:39 AM
OH THE HORROR! |
O
Ojaitimo
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Fri, Apr 25, 2008 10:40 AM
I just finished going through all 4 pages. Almost made me physically ill. I kid you not! |
TGT
The Granite Tiki
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Fri, Apr 25, 2008 10:52 AM
"Does anyone else think this one at Sam's Seafood (August 2005) is supposed to be wearing a tie? " Maybe they initiated a dress code that year. :) |
M
ManFromT.I.K.I.
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Fri, Apr 25, 2008 11:51 AM
The mouth . . . coincidence? I don't think so! No way that painter/defacer wasn't a Ducks fan. We may have the first documented case of the rare sportsTiki variant. |
O
Ojaitimo
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Fri, Apr 25, 2008 1:09 PM
The Tiki Temple room at the Trade Wind's in 1964. The painted Tiki must have made Richard Ellis cringe when he saw them finished, at least I hope they did. I'm not sure who made that command decision to paint them or they came that way. Maybe Leroy and Bob can tell us.
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bigbrotiki
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Fri, Apr 25, 2008 1:28 PM
Tim, I just drove by the Wagon Wheel junction last weekend, what a sad sight. What year did they shut down the Motel and restaurant? |
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Ojaitimo
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Fri, Apr 25, 2008 7:01 PM
Yes, sad. The Wagon Wheel Restaurant was closed in 2005, and the motel was closed in November 2006. The Wagon Wheel Bowl is still open but the rest is sitting vacant. San Buena Ventura Conservancy has the Wagon Wheel designated as a landmark so maybe there is some hope. The trees on the Trade Wind;s former site would be the perfect place for a new Don the Beachcomber.
Wagon Wheel, Oxnard, California The Wagon Wheel's neon sign visible from Highway 101. [ Edited by: Ojaitimo 2008-05-14 14:48 ] |
DNH
Daves Not Home
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Tue, May 6, 2008 4:02 PM
Spotted in the Hanalei Hotel/San Diego last year |
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Dustycajun
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Tue, May 6, 2008 5:51 PM
I have to believe that the original Tikis at the Hanalei Hotel were not painted like they are today. Here are some more shots of the carnage from my last trip there. Does anybody have pics of when these were not painted. |
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bigbrotiki
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Tue, May 6, 2008 10:21 PM
Yeah, they probably keep on re-coating them that way too. That's what I call adding (visual) insult to injury (the tearing out of the restaurant). Here are the classic post carvings, which all came from the even more classic Beverly Hills Luau (whose name will be insulted soon, too), in their original state: |
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Dustycajun
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Tue, May 6, 2008 10:47 PM
Bigbro, I totally forgot that those tiki posts at the Hanalei had been moved over from the Luau. Thanks for the pictures. That makes the paint job seem much worse. Here is a close up from their original home in the Luau dining room. What fools!! |
K
Koolau
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Sun, May 11, 2008 1:11 AM
Regrettable vintage mugs - right now on eBay: |
TT
Tiki Trav
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Sun, May 11, 2008 4:59 PM
OH NO!!! What next? The hanalei is slowly being destroyed! |
SF
Slacks Ferret
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Mon, May 12, 2008 8:41 AM
I may have walked into the Hanalei just after the painting travesty was done... |
SF
Slacks Ferret
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Mon, May 12, 2008 8:45 AM
Oh, never mind...that was just a "freshnin' up the travesty" coat. |
O
Ojaitimo
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Wed, May 14, 2008 2:38 PM
Have any of you seen that new bio degradeable paint stripper they advertise on TV that is non toxic? Does this stuff work quickly during a night |
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Moai_Mama
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Wed, May 14, 2008 4:27 PM
OMG @ how this little spoon dude must feel, all pink in floral tole! I simply couldn't leave him at the Salvation Army like that, for all the world to see, without removing that gawdawful goop... |
BB
Bora Boris
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Tue, May 20, 2008 8:20 PM
Even white paint can ruin a guy if it’s in the wrong places. Like this Tiki from The Isle apartments in El Segundo. |
TG
The Gnomon
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Wed, May 21, 2008 11:42 AM
Looks like a Tiki Al Jolson Probably his most well known persona from The Jazz Singer... What he looked like without makeup... I guess the act was really popular at the time. I don't think our brothas and sistas approved. Today Rev Sharpton could probably get anyone doing blackface act like that deported to Antarctica. [ Edited by: The Gnomon 2008-05-21 11:46 ] |
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Tiki-Kate
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Wed, May 21, 2008 6:40 PM
I've got to add this one from the Scorpion Sports Bar in San Bernardino. Here's a little history on the place. Trader Island |
PTD
Psycho Tiki D
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Wed, May 21, 2008 6:51 PM
Al Jolson is as much a regretable tiki as is Marcel Marceau? WTF?? PTD |
R
Ratzaroony
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Tue, Jul 29, 2008 6:46 AM
Is this that same tiki? It's currently up on eBay. Not my auction, but I saw it and remembered this thread. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330255460686 |
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TikiMango
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Tue, Jul 29, 2008 7:35 AM
Looks like a rescue project. |
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bigbrotiki
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Tue, Jul 29, 2008 7:50 AM
How cool. Great Tiki memory, Ratzaroony. I wonder what age that original postcard is from...I would say late 60s?: That is unusually early for Tiki clown-painting. While it was a mistake then as it is now, it is authentic and should be kept that way. Funny, that seller doesn't even know where it came from. |
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Ratzaroony
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Tue, Jul 29, 2008 8:20 AM
Agreed. I'm going to try to win it, but if I don't, I hope the winner will not repaint it. |
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Kong-Tiki
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Tue, Sep 1, 2009 7:10 PM
I had not been in SF since last year when I went by Tiki Bob today to pay my respect. I was a bit put off by the new, green color, which gives The Crepe House a more Irish Pub-look. I actually think i preferred the peach color. On the other side of the street, The Owl Tree had reopened with a new, fancy mural. |
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Dustycajun
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Tue, Sep 1, 2009 7:19 PM
These are from the Waikiki Lounge and Supper Club at the Hawaiian Inn in Daytona Beach, Fl. Before (from Sabu's Postcard) After (from Google) Makes you feel kinda blue. DC [ Edited by: Dustycajun 2009-09-01 19:20 ] |
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builtiki
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Tue, Sep 1, 2009 8:33 PM
wow is it true that there are gay tikis....poor 1970's the tikis were just trying to get into Studio 54, with the rest of the beautiful people...just because they had to paint themselves up to be timely doesn't make them Gay!!!! |
O
Okolehao
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Fri, Sep 4, 2009 4:30 PM
I'm sure this photo must be somewhere on T.C. already, but "HAND PAINTED by skilled artists in bright BARBARIC COLORS!" is great. This type of medalion's painting must have had some relationship to real Tikis being painted in BARBARIC COLORS. Considering the postage was 10 cents for Parcel Post, I guess this was way before the 1970's. Did these things inspire Tikis being painted, or did Tikis being painted inspire these things? Or were these just cheap kids jewelery and nothing else? (no insult to the cheap kids) |
GK
Grand Kahu
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Mon, Sep 7, 2009 12:09 PM
Tikis - and various Polynesian symbolic objects (masks, etc.) WERE often ritually painted with lime, clays, and other natural pigments. This is not to say they were in day-glo groovy colors, but the brown or weathered gray tikis we all know and love are products of just that - weathering and loss of color. It's akin to the Greek Revival and the scores of white marble buildings which were constructed in the last three centuries. By then, the real ancient Greek structures had lost all of their color (and they were a riot of color) to weathering, hence Greek Revival buildings are typically white - or white. Still, it looks odd to us, as we are used to the current state of things. If Washington D.C. were color-corrected to the original Roman and Greek color schemes, most would think the city had been turned into a huge bordello. (and no, that is not a political commentary...just an architectural one) GK |
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bigbrotiki
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Mon, Sep 7, 2009 2:01 PM
True about Greek sculpture, and pre-Colombian architecture, too. But in terms of Tikis, more often in Melanesia, less in Polynesia. Anyway, as far as Tiki culture is concerned, not possible historic authenticity matters, but the IMPRESSION of what was seen as "primitive art", and the concepts it represented in the 20th Century: To the moderns: The birth of art, the creative spirit of unspoiled man, the freedom from naturalistic form... All this was represented by ancient looking, simple but elegant, scary but funny, monochromatic figurines seen in the Oceanic Art exhibitions and books of the mid-century. And this is the way 1950s and 60s artisans re-created them for the modern Tiki temples of that time. Tikis, as they were found by the explorers and missionaries, are dark and brooding, not happy and flashy, and this contrast to modernity was -for a brief time- what inspired American Tiki entrepreneurs and artists. Later, they became scared of their own gutsiness and began to update them with glossy colors, destroying the effect of aged, archaic relics. That is why paint jobs on Tikis are most regrettable, no two ways about it. :) |
HT
Hale Tiki
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Wed, Mar 13, 2013 9:23 AM
Bumping this for posterity. It's a damn fine thread. |
D
Dustycajun
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Mon, Mar 18, 2013 4:30 PM
This on falls under the category of "Most regrettable Tiki Bar Attempts"! Brought to you in the 1970's during the free fall of Tiki De-evolution, the Bali Hai Room at the Shantung Restaurant in Dover, NJ. The room decor, stunning it its own right. Several regrettable painted Tikis. They did use Tiki mugs at least. Description from the back of the postcard. Where's Bamboo Ben when you need him? (in Hawaii of course) DC |
ATP
Atomic Tiki Punk
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Mon, Mar 18, 2013 7:44 PM
That should have been called the "Party City Tiki Room" |
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bigbrotiki
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Mon, Mar 18, 2013 8:37 PM
The abstract design on the floor really saves the day! :lol: Amazing how within one generation, the knowledge and know how was lost. Those are Orchids Tikis, of course. |
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tikilongbeach
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Tue, Mar 19, 2013 8:16 AM
It looks like Polynesian night at a community center or retirement home. |
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tikilongbeach
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Tue, Mar 19, 2013 8:24 AM
This circus clown painted big tiki was for sale for quite a long time at Warehouse 1333 in Long Beach. It still could be, I haven't be in there in over a year. This tiki only had his eyes painted white so he got off pretty easy. He's still for sale at the Long Beach Antique Mall II. The original thread: -Lori [ Edited by: tikilongbeach 2013-03-19 08:29 ] [ Edited by: tikilongbeach 2013-03-19 08:30 ] |
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tikilongbeach
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Tue, Mar 19, 2013 11:28 AM
Painted tiki on the outside of Tiki-Tiki Chinese Restaurant in Richmond, VA. http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=7528&forum=2&hilite=richmond |
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bigbrotiki
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Tue, Mar 19, 2013 11:40 AM
He looks like he could have been a Mike Gildea job: http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=38445&forum=1&start=0 http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=22886&forum=2 |