The Lurid low-brow Tiki-Art of Brad (tiki-shark) Parker

Aloha tiki Tribe!
Sorry about the gap in my blog/tread. Sometimes life happens and no art gets done.
leleliz - Thanks! I'm getting back, and getting some work on Frankenstein done, hope you dig it. You nailed it. Kitsch - is it art? Is it an American Art form like "Comic Books" or "Professional Wrestling"? Guess I'm exploring the idea of "if you paint kitsch carefully and well enough, (or as best as I can) what happens?" When does kitsch turn into art? Or does it? Or is it already? Or is that a stupid question?
Atomic Tiki Punk - I... well, wow. Thank you so much for such generous words. To hear someone (i have not slipped a few bucks) say something so complementary about my work is very nice. Really. Big big Mahalo!
zerostreet - Thanks! I LOVE to hear I can help inspire other artists! That's what TC is all about! I'm so inspired by the other tiki artists here, it's the reason I started doing tiki art. Like seeing Ken's work jazzed me into making work I never had the guts to try. Big aloha buddy!
Atomic Tiki Punk - Sorry brother, I was out dealing with life and all it's roller coaster-ness. Now back to making some art!

Here's the first step ... note he has a surf board

Here's the next rough... I changed what Frankenstein had into a uke. I thought it was more funny... and kitschy.

Big aloha!
B~

Aw you bastard, GROG like the surfboard. But, if you want to do the Uke, that works too, but GROG like the surfboard.

Maybe the Mummy will have a surfboard.

[ Edited by: GROG 2010-02-20 13:42 ]

Your paintings of the 3 horror film characters relating to Hawaii really are unique. I like Frenkenstein surfing, it more Hawaiian and Tiki. I hate to agree with Grog. Anyway Frank playing the UKE will be great.

Really dig it, Brad!

I'm sure it will turn out perfect like most of your stuff does.

I hear ya' guys. But think of them as a set of four. Two are drinking, and now, two are playing musical instruments. It's a monster beach party!
However, If I did a mummy, he would be cool having a sarcophagus shaped surf board.

Brad-will you have a set of all 4 hawaiian horror film characters in giclee maybe 10 x 12 for sale in the near future. If the prints are too large it might be hard to display the set for some tiki collectors.

I noticed the sweet tiki necklace is gone, Has to have a tiki in there somewhere

Do whatever you want,Brad!
Ignore all of us amateurs
you got the instinct
you got the insight
you got the talent
You got's the magic touch!

CANNOT wait to hang in the near future!

Monster beach party!

lovin the idea of the sarcof-surfbaord!

Invisible man!

I like the Frankie and Ukulele combo!! Damn that image would make a hyper-cool Aurora style 3D model kit :wink:

Brad, bro, your work is always fab with me. Always.

awesome sauce brad! lovin the hobnail slippas! is that a C chord he's playing?

Aloha Tiki Tribe ~
Thanks for all the in-put. I got delayed a bit in the middle of making Frankenstein, and your thoughts helped get me jump-started again.
HB ~ Thanks. 12" x 10" sized prints? That'd be cool. The original paintings are only 14" x 11" (some gallery director told me you always state the vertical dimension first) they would shrink down fine I think. However, I'm still thinking of doing one poster/print of all four in a big square layout. Lesser quality printing so not an expansive giclee, but more affordable. I'm hoping $25 to $50 range, if I can get decent printing at that cost. I might even want to make them look like mock up Aurora model box covers with title text and logos for "ALOHA" models for that poster. What do you think?
teaKEY ~ Big Mahalo for your insight brother. I appreciate your help, and advice. See below for the results.
LLT ~ Oh Ken, I get a boost in my day, every time I get a few words of wisdom from you on this art-bloggy thing. I would sleep on your couch and make art in you kitchen if your wife would let me, just to be around your jedi art master mojo. I'm hoping we can get together when I'm in LA.
I leave the big Island March 3rd. Got's lots of regular-business and such going most the week. Then, on Friday, March 5th the opening night of the group show at La Luz de Jesus gallery, 8PM to 11PM. If you, or anyone in the tiki tribe could make it there, I'd wet my pants in happiness. (Well, my trousers might be damp just from getting in the show anyways)
La Luz de Jesus
4633 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 666-7667
Now, today's crazy-ness has me driving my three paintings up to the north side to have my printer ( who has been off island on vacation) scan them in, then hauling them to UPS so get them shipped to La Luz ....so they arrive by March 1st!! - this could be cutting it V E R Y close as things are not known as being promptly shipped from the "outer islands" where I am. So... hope this all goes well today and my art actually makes it to the show!
tikiG ~ Big Mahalo! Yes , you have seen them for what they are. The monsters are Aurora box cover art, for monster models that were never created. Like I said, I'm thinking of doing prints of these to look like box art. Make up an "ALOHA" logo, (instead of Aurora), put on the model name "The KREATURE from KONA" in funky type. Could be fun, what do you think?
Here's the lateset...

Frankenstein had no legs...

So, had to paint out the old ones, make a little room and rough in the new feet.
Better?

Big Mahalo!
Now, the drive up north...

Aloha
Brad~

Big Toe! Dude! Yeah they were hob-nail slippa's! but hada make room for some legs, Now, I gotta start em all over again. Oh well, no worries, now I know already how to paint 'em once so second time should be betta!

Aloha,

dig his new feet, lowered them so he's got some legs.
Mahalo!

Aloha Tiki Tribe!

Here's the start of the sunset like background.
Mahalo!
B~

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!

Frankenstein goes Hawaiian

Working that glowing sunset cloud bank. Working out some dramatic lighting on frank...
this will be the best of the four I hope!

Excited about getting to LA! I may FREAK OUT on the freeway! (we don't even have a free way here on the island! and 55 is FAST here!)
Don't know if Frankenstein will be done by March 5th, how ever, I think if anyone purchases the three swanky monsters at La Luz de Jesus, I can offer them the fourth one at a good deal or something.... gotta have the whole set!

Oh well, we'll see!
Big Aloha!
Brad~

On 2010-02-25 13:05, Tiki Shark Art wrote:

this will be the best of the four I hope!

We'll be the judges of that! It's going to be hard to beat the Kreature painting!

Looking forward to seeing you here in LA again.

one week Brad!!!!

mp is gonna be in the show too!
and Miles
and heather watts
yay for TC kids at laLuz!

i agree with GROG
Creature painting is the BEST of the batch!

Grog - Yeah, the Kreature is gonna be hard to top. It sort of flowed out. You know sometimes art is really hard work and nothing comes out right, and sometimes it all works so easily and you just watch it happen... the Kreature sort of was like that at bit. A big labor of love.... hey... as a matter of fact... there is NO WAY I'm letting any one buy that!
I'm withdrawing it from the show right now!
er... wait, I rent's coming up.
Oh well, time to sell!
LLT - COOL! It'll be so cool to meet up some TC folks there! I've never met Heather before ... only heard of her goddess like loveliness and seen her heavenly art.
I'm sooo excited! (now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go barf to let the major butterflies in my stomach out)

Roughing in some wave action...

Big ALOHA!
Brado~

not sure if Ms. Watts will be there or not
but it'll still be fun!
Is that the Chilean Tsunami behind Frankie?

see you soon!

Tsunami!

...blub, blub, blub...

Hey, woke up in the dark of this morning hearing the Tsunami sirens going off! A little creepy.

But, in true Kona fashion, folks in our neighborhood came out on their patios and start joking about, "Hey, bra, lets grab our boards and go down and check the waves out!"
Everyone was home watching the TV, or hanging on their patios watching the ocean. Not too much happened... our neighbors asked if we wanted to go check out Costco cause "Hey, like nobody was there bra!"

I did hear a strange misinformation on TV. Some network said there was as estimated 30 to 40 thousand people evacuated on the Big Island. We were scratching our heads thinking...hey, I think there is only like 80 or 90 thousand people on the whole island. How come everyone got saved and evacuated but us? No one we knew or phoned, got evacuated. so, maybe that was a little exaggeration.

And the live photos of the deserted streets of Waikiki looked like the police where ready for Godzilla to attack Honolulu.

So, till the big wave hits, I'm going to do some painting!

ALOHA!

Hey Brad, hoping for only good news! take care of yourself and keep to high ground!

Atomic tiki Punk~ No worries, high and dry! I live well above the Tsunami zone now a days.

It was kinda fun working on the wave today, with all the talk about the Tsunami and all dat.
Here it is, a bit better along...

ALOHA!
B~

Gotta say, GROOVY! Brad.

Really nice Frank 'n Wave! I dig his studded slippers, and there's no doubt this is gonna be great. Good luck in LA.

Fire Bad. Painting of FrankenTiki, Good

Atomic Tiki Punk ~ Big Mahalo glad you're groovin on it!
TikiMango ~ Thanks! The hob nailed slippa's had to go in... very big island. No one really wears shoes here. I'm very excited about the LA show. Getting off the island will be fun tooo... it's been a while.
teaKEY ~ "Goooood!" I see you are a fan of the classic movies too. Hey, in Bride of Frankenstein - where he's in the blind man's hut, and there's that really heart warming moment... do you get all choked up when Boris has a tear run down his face. I was just watching that, and wow... that still really works. Great old movie. Lots of funny bits in it too.

Here's the Frankensurf painting so far....
Worked up that wave a lot during the whole tsunami thing this week end.

Big Aloha!
B~

put that paintbrush down and get to the mainland,brad!
the la Luz show is in 4 DAYS!
:)

Congrats on the La Luz group show Brad!
That is always a fun eclectic show to see.
My favorite store too. We have been selling
our fluff stuff there for many years. Will try
to stop by for the show and say hi.

A L O H A tiki Tribe!

LLT~ I leave for the main land tonight. Very excited and very nervous! I have not been off the rock since last July. I know I'm going to go into culture shock on the LA freeways ... like I did last time! We have no free way on the island. Cars go about 35 mph all the way around the freaking island. Last time I was in LA I drove from your place in Orange to my mom's in West lake village... I was going 80 mph in the slow lane and cars were ZOOMING past me... scared the aloha outa' me! Maybe one or two hours more painting today...I won't be able to paint for like 7 days! You know how we artists get - all twitchy and itchy with out being able to make art! Soooo sketch book time! Hope 2 see u dere in La La Land!

Iokona Ki'i~ Thank you! It was a real special surprise to get in the show. I went on line and saw some of the other WAY cool work in the show...some very very cool stuff!

So far my fav is mp's painting: Groms. I Only wish Frankenstein was finished in time. Iokona Ki'i, It'd be GREAT to see you there. Come up and say hi! I'm gonna wear a really bright red and yellow fire pattern aloha shirt witha devil face on the back so tiki tribe folks can find me. Now, of course, I apologize in advance if I come off weird... I admit I am a TOTAL social slug: An introvert-maximus. I expect I will have a deer-in-the-head-lights look to my glazed slack face from being in a big crowd of people - there are like a hundred artists in dis show! Perhaps a few trips next door over to the Tiki Ti for a few Mai Tais or Zombies will help!

Speaking of Frankenstein:

Here he is so far...

Here's the palm tree. Yeah I went for more real looking trees this time.

Here's the wave and some more palms...
I'm really getting into these waves, especially after I did "Mister Mai Tai"

Well....
I will be away from my studio till I get back from LA. That's next week. So you may not see anything here till like the 12th or so.

Big ALOHA
Brado~

Have a safe trip,Brad!
We'll see you Friday night!
i know mp,Toesy,Squids,DougHorne,meself,and possibly hopefully Jonesy will be heading up
to watch your startled doe-like expression! :)

them palms are lookin splendiferousmatic!

Brad, Frank is looking awesome. Cant wait to see you and your paintings in person. MP

Darn! Wish I could make this show!

Have fun and sell lots of art.

those damn waves just blow my mind!!

• the colors!!
  Very cool

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!
Well, I'm back on da' island.
LA was lots of fun! Thanks to everyone who came down to La Luz for opening night.

Here's the 3 exotica-monsters on the wall at the show. Good news is 2 outa 3 sold.

It got so crowded that soon you could not really see the art on the walls of the gallery.

Christine and friend came up from Redondo Beach - Thanks!

Tubunga (Eric October) and Manuel dropped in.

Tubunga, Big Toe, Tki Shark, and mp!

Tom, Ken Ruzic (LLT) and u know who.
LOTS of friends came by. Wish I had more photos! - Ryan, Nick, Digger (!), Mike (Zallen) and Jeff, Phil (may soon be some cool news ona new high-tec project with my art for you folks who love your Android phones... more news later), Billy and Glen (thanks for bringing the flask!), Kevin, Teri and Scott, and Jen (you looked so extra-hot and hip I didn't know my own neice at first.. sorry!), Mark Parker (da' famous art collector) and Grace, Joe... and many many other cool tiki tribe members ... it's all a bit blurry now... but GREAT fun. Big MAHALO. Thanks for stopping in... really made my night. I'm honored to know such cool people.
...and thanks to the nice folks at La Luz de Jesus Gallery!

It was a crazy fun trip - we did lots of business with Tiki Shark Hawaii Inc, saw the cool people at Body Glove, and
the FreakyBoutiki and Hodadhank in Mission Beach! (Coolest tiki shop ever!)
Saw AVATAR in 3D at a swanky theater in 1000 Oaks that (get this) had a BAR as a concessions stand. Really!
You could take alcohol drinks into the movie! Way SWANKY! Made the 3D even better!
Had some quality time with the family. Ate at the first Bob's Big Boy (da one in Bubank)

Took my mom's car to get smog tested.
Er... that's not my mom's car, but the garage was also a hot rod and classic car shop

• very So Cal.

So... got a few lines on next art shows in so Cal... I'll let u know as soon as I get better details!
ALOHA!
B~

Hi Brad,
Glad to hear all went well, I was not able to make it on opening night, bummed about that!

SHARK you are the mannn!!!

Saw this and thought of you mate :D :D

BRAD-I found these old monster buttons today, i think they are from the 50's or 60's Universal Studio made in USA. Keep working on your great pictures of the monsters.

Aloha tiki Tribe!

Well, slowly coming out of my decompression chamber from LA to Kona...
Atomic Tiki Punk - no worries, hey, we'll hook up on the next LA adventure.
tikigodz - oh no, U da' man! :)
hewey - Oh sweeeet shot! Funny how one can never get tired of looking at waves...
HB TIKI - OH KOOL! Looks like I'm still got maybe the Phantom, the Mummy to do. Thanks for posting those!
Speaking of classic monsters...

Finally got some work on Frankie started up again.

Here's a better look see at the kooky aloha shirt.

More coming, as I get my studio back in shape, and I get back in the groove.

Big aloha
B~

Is looking Great, Brad.
Don't forget about Gort!

duuuuude, that frankie is looking soooooo good. i love the uke, altho the surf angle was sweet too...kind of speaks to the way surfing over that razor sharp "a'a" in da islands leaves one's skin shredded and needing to be stitched up!

quick heads up tho, i am doing a Brad Parker © candy-colored sky on a painting this week...u will probably be needing to send ur lawyers after me for trademark infringement.

MAD alohas, toes

Aloha Tiki Tribe!
Atomic Tiki Punk - Yeah I love the old version of "The Day the Earth stood still" There's that great dramatic moment at the end where the wounded alien says...“There's no limit to what he can do. He could destroy the earth, or go to Hawaii for a nice vacation... If anything should happen to me you must go to Gort, you must say these words, "Klaatu barada nikto."
BigToe - Wha? I thought I was doing "Big Toe" backgrounds?!

Painted in the new hand... more to come...
Mahalo!~
Brad~

Nice touch on the hand AND sandals!
Back in the saddle i presume!

Phantom of the Opera....NEXT!
pleeeeeeez?

Your monster series is out of sight, Does it help living in hawaii to create such great art. Looking forward to seeing the finish product of Frank.

Still waiting to see this one in color. I really think this one is just alot more powerful than the hand one (that's cool too, but to me this one just has the extra punch).

Aloha Tiki Tibe!
LLT ~ Hey Kenny! Thanks so much! the Phantom? Not sure if I'm doing any more monsters right now... I think I need a break and n eed to do something big again (30" x 24" ) - but I may sneak back to a few more small canvases of the monsters on va ca. The Phantoms right up there, ...but it's have to be the Lon Chaney Sr, Phantom - fer shure!
HB TIKI ~ Thanks, yes I'd say environment effects my art a lot.

This was what I saw on my evening stroll last night. I never get tired of seeing each and every different sunset here.
Badd Tiki ~ Well, "Faster Than Disaster" is the next painting. but, heck now I was all set to do the reaching hand... now you like da' stomping foot? I gotta' think about this again! (grumble grumble!) :)

So,
Franks almost done. Think this is my last day working on him...

big mahalo
B~

Amazing work as always , Brad! I think the hand is more interesting artistically then the foot, being grabbed by that giant
hand evokes more menace then getting stomped by the big foot?