Examples abound. Please make an effort to use Tiki related artists. (but not only, exceptions like Dali are more than welcome) Here's 3 examples:

On 2010-03-24 10:14, Zeta wrote:
Here we go again... Get your tomatoes ready!

Portrait of Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso
Madrid 2002 or so...
Ballpoint pen on paper

Dedicated to TikiPug, I hope you hate it.

Name: Picasso A.K.A. Picasshole. Enfant terrible. Iconoclast. Quintessential Modernist painter.
Sins: Womanizer. fraud suspect.
Excuse: He was a genius. Art critics ruined him, too much praising. fans and paparazzis stalking him beautiful young women
Possible reasons: Shortness. Baldness
Tiki Relation: Las Senoritas de Avignon. (Painting, MOMA NY)

Name: Amadeo Modigliani
Sins: Womanizer and drunkard. Died in Paris (some say his body was found death on the beach) at 36
Excuse: He was too sensible

Quotes about art and artists are welcome too:

"We all know that a good person can be a bad artist. But nobody will ever be a real artist unless he is also a great human being, meaning, a good person" -Marc Chagall

or

"Art is a little lie that helps you understand a bigger truth" -Picasso

I have many more... what you got? Mister Lurker, don't be shy. share your thoughts. Why not?

I have been fascinated with that question for a long time, too, Zeta, since the same problem sometimes pops up un the film industry. I can think of two reasons:

1.) To have the ambition to stick out from the masses and be driven to create, create, create you have to have some kind of imbalance that makes you feel you MUST prove yourself. That imbalance might come out as anti-social, not nice behavior.

2.) Once successful, not everybody manages to resist the constant attention and keep their ego in check. Assholy behavior results.

Good luck with this thread, in my experience "controversial" and philosophical questions like this do not go far on Tiki Central. Especially since I cannot think of one artist example in our Tiki community that fits that description. Even famous Josh Agle has remained the nicest human being there can be.

Why stop at artists? How about musicians and writers? I think that anyone who is driven by a creative soul lives for their art/craft/vision and "doesn't suffer fools"."A**hole" might be a little harsh, "eccentric" might be a better description.

Unless Tiki artists are different from non-Tiki artists, this might be a better fit for "Beyond Tiki".

Here's a more interesting question: Are Tiki carvers more eccentric than their canvas painting counter-parts ? How about mug sculpters ? :)

Well of course they are all NUTS, (talking about eccentric)! ...But none are MEAN (which is where the a-holy thing comes in). Some are so nice, they shouldn't even be allowed to call themselves artists! :wink:

Do you actually expect that anyone here will volunteer their honest and personal opinion on Tiki artists here? And I -honestly !-mean it when I say it is a moot point in terms of the artistic Tiki community, they simply are a bunch of fun, lovable gutter pups. At least in my experience, because everyone is always nice to me! :)

Two things: One,why dedicate and wish for hate from Tikipug? Just asking for bad responses if you ask me.
Two, the asshole connection in relation to beatniks is a bit confusing. Are you referring to the media inspired "beatniks" or the "Beats"?

Let me throw this out. Would anyone here consider "Tiki art" to be part of the Low Brow art movement? Here's one definition:

"An underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California, area in the late 1970s. Lowbrow is a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comix world, punk music, hot-rod street culture, and other California subcultures."

I would argue that classic Tiki-style and Tiki Modern are the precursors to the Low Brow art movement and a significant part of it with Tiki Revival art.

Low Brow art has a self-consious sense of humor to it so maybe that's why the artists are so nice.

(But GROG did hurt my feelings one time. :D )

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2010-06-15 11:10 ]

Ok. The title is : The Artist : Why sometimes they are A**holes?
It says "sometimes" not all the time. I think That all humans are assholes at least once in their life. An It's o.k. nobody is perfect. This is not a mean intended post. I swear. I just want to debate about this "DAMNED ARTIST CLICHE" I want to know about artists obnoxious compulsive behaviors. Sometimes perceived as anti-social. The madness. How much is true how much is a myth. Creativity and all that.
I mean no offense to anyone. I was not thinking of the close nit network of contemporary Tiki Artist. I am talking about artists in general, if you have some examples, that's great. I want to know stories and details about my favorite classic modern tiki artists...
Paul Klee
Tristan Tzara
Big Daddy Roth
Edgar Leetag
James Michener
Miguel Covarrubias
etc...
The revivalists too! But they are still alive... (we will have to wait for their unofficial biographies.)

The Picasso drawing dedication was just to illustrate the intro and some points (besides the excuse to expose my art again to you).
The Tikipug dedication was me replying to his critic towards my art and I used it here as an example of myself being an A-hole. Also, I think it's just humor. As tikipug would say: "Take a pill" and don't stir the fire. tikipug and me are like bros. now.

The Beatnik that I am talking about is the archetype of the beatnik. You know what I mean. Goatee, the hat. the glasses, the too many coffees, the "bomb the establisment" politics.
Also the real thing. Burroughs, Keroac, Chinanski, or Eden Ahbez... Don't take this too seriously. I am just really interested in the subject since I consider myself some kind of cartoonist/artist and since I often display simptoms of the characteristic eccentric asshole artist behavior... Many times I am not really being an A-hole, I am just being misunderstood. (Like right here)
A-L-O-H-A-!

BE RESPECTFUL!

IF YOU STILL THINK THIS TOPIC IS WRONG. USE THE U-MODERATE POWER AND SEND IT DIRECTLY TO THE BOTTOM OF THE BILGE. I WON'T TAKE OFFENSE.

On 2010-06-15 11:04, JOHN-O wrote:
Let me throw this out. Would anyone here consider "Tiki art" to be part of the Low Brow art movement? Here's one definition:

"An underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California, area in the late 1970s. Lowbrow is a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comix world, punk music, hot-rod street culture, and other California subcultures."

I would argue that classic Tiki-style and Tiki Modern are the precursors to the Low Brow art movement and a significant part of it with Tiki Revival art.

Low Brow art has a self-consious sense of humor to it so maybe that's why the artists are so nice.

(But GROG did hurt my feelings one time. :D )

That last one is a good point: The sense of humor about oneself and one's work will certainly help one to stay level-headed.

I don't agree with your assessment about Low brow art and the percentage of Tiki in it. I believe the low brow scene and its output of are much vaster, with only a small percentage being Tiki-related.

But this thread is quickly going all over the place now -because we are attempting to bring it into a Tiki context, which isn't really there. I think the initial question was more an expression of Zeta working out the recent affront towards him than something that really relates to Tiki art.
]

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2010-06-15 11:23 ]

On 2010-06-15 10:02, JOHN-O wrote:
I think that anyone who is driven by a creative soul lives for their art/craft/vision and "doesn't suffer fools".

JAJA! AWESOME! That's the "image" I am looking for...

Frustrated artist thinking for himself:

"Those fools, I will show them..."

Oh boy...
Angst is a powerful creative force.
According to Picasso (and others) creation and destruction are two sides of the same coin. (the coin image was added up by me)
He said exactly... (wait, I am getting my artist's quotes blackbook... 1 minute please...) Here!

"The creative act is first and foremost an act of destruction" -Picasso

See? Assholeish but true! Maybe he was not being an asshole, maybe I am just bitter because he said it and I didn't. People hate genius because it reminds them of their own mediocrity... I guess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl8sWnUZVL4

Chris,

What a great video for this thread!

DC