Paper?

I am thinking of writing an academic paper about some Tikicarvers and their unique styles. I always have to think about the "chess set" by Crazy Al which was featured in Tiki Art Now? So has anybody some reliable biographical information about guys like Milan Guanko? It seems to me he is more "unknown" than the others...

Do you mean biographical info beyond what is written in the Book of Tiki? An academic paper on American mid-century Tiki carvers would be a very valiant endeavor, since they were not seen as artists worthy of being noted back then. So unfortunately you can't just go to a library and look them up. The best source would likely be local newspaper archives, most anything ever published on them exists in small news clippings. Or to try to find relatives, which in the case of Guanko is not easy, because you'd have to look in a Californian immigrant community.

I would love it if more folks would build on my research and go deeper into the history of American Tiki carvers, some (like JP with Barney West) have done it and have come up with amazing finds. For me the big enigma is still Andres Bumatay.

Thanks for the request. I guess you are talking about the article by Mr. Balak in Tiki Magazine Summer 2010. This is an very interesting part of research and it was great that the author was able to take a look at the correspondence of West with Oceanic Arts. I guess I will use the article too, of course, with all correct citations. I would also be interested to get some information about the catalogue of Tiki Junction, which is featured in this article. Is JP also on Tiki Central? Please drop me a line.

Anyway, I only can work with the stuff I that is available here in Austria - and that isn't quite much - as I can't afford a trip to sunny California yet. But one thing is for sure; I just read a few academic papers that were written here that deal with the topic Tiki and your publications are just essential. But I am sure you already know that :) But let me ask - who is Andres Bumatay? Sounds Hungarian to me...

Well, that Andres Bumatay question convinces me that you have not taken step one in Tiki research: Get the Book of Tiki. :)
Where do you think Craz Al got his different Tiki chess figures from? (One of them is a Bumatay) It's 35.- Euros used, in very good condition.

Also, step 2 in Tiki research: When you find a name for place or person you are curious about, paste it into the Tiki Central search engine, and read through all the results. At this point, there is more specialized info on TC than in my books.

Alright, my fault. Makes me look like an absolute beginner. As we say, Asche auf mein Haupt...

I agree, the Book of Tiki is a must read...and a must have! I recall seeing your advance copy , Sven at the Kahiki clsoing weekend oh too many years ago! I knew I had to buy one asap (which I did).

Shame on me, I have to say that I own The Book of Tiki since nearly 9 years, even as a signed copy. I just haven't got the Andres Bumatay information right - mea culpa. Schade dass es keine deutsche Version davon gibt :wink:
Anyway, I guess there is no additional info for Mr. Guanko. Is it still possible that somebody gives me some contact-info about Jonpaul Balak aka JP?

Since Jonpaul is a TC member you could try "Oh I don't know? some research maybe"
here is his TC contact info: http://www.tikicentral.com/bb_profile.php?mode=view&user=12627
your going to have to do a better job if you want to be a writer/Journalist :P

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2012-04-12 00:49 ]

Thanx a lot

On 2012-04-09 08:20, bigbrotiki wrote:
Do you mean biographical info beyond what is written in the Book of Tiki? An academic paper on American mid-century Tiki carvers would be a very valiant endeavor, since they were not seen as artists worthy of being noted back then. So unfortunately you can't just go to a library and look them up. The best source would likely be local newspaper archives, most anything ever published on them exists in small news clippings. Or to try to find relatives, which in the case of Guanko is not easy, because you'd have to look in a Californian immigrant community.

I would love it if more folks would build on my research and go deeper into the history of American Tiki carvers, some (like JP with Barney West) have done it and have come up with amazing finds. For me the big enigma is still Andres Bumatay.

Andy Bumatay? Bumatay is a Filipino name it is Andy's fathers mothers maiden name. His fathers birth name was Bacilio Narte, he changed his last name to Bumatay and left the Philippines, and settled in Hawaii, where he married my fathers mother, she was full-blooded Hawaiian and they had five children. Andy was the youngest of two brothers and two sisters. His middle name is Kanuha which is his mothers family name and he was born in Kona, Hawaii. The news clipping dated on March 4, 1964 was taken 24 days before I was born. My name is Andrea Kanuha Bumatay. I came across this website a few days ago and was extremely surprised to learn that my fathers carvings are valued by so many. Its the first time I had ever seen the clippings. I was born and raised in Seattle Washington. My dad loved the Evergreen State, he bought a home and settled there, it is also his final resting place. While I was growing-up my dad was always carving something I didn't pay much attention to where his tiki's were going, or who they were going too. When I was around four years old I remember going to Hawaii and seeing my dads tiki's displayed at a popular park, they seemed to be very tall and people were taking pictures with their families standing by the tiki's but my memory is vague. My father worked for Todd's shipyard for as long as I can remember until his retirement in 1996. He was 64 when he died. I am the oldest of four kids. My parents divorced when I was three, my dad moved back to Hawaii and then he sent for my sister and I, I was about four then. We didn't stay long because we missed our mom, so we moved back to Washington. He married a Filipino woman, my stepmom her name is Magdalena when I was eight and they had two sons. I was close to my dad he was well respected, and was the type that you didn't mess with. Never in my life did I disrespect my father, he was very strict with my sister and me, she was a year younger then I. He loved playing Hawaiian music, he had his own band that played at a Hawaiian night club not far from our house, it was called "Golden Doors", this is when I was about five or six. One time he didn't have a babysitter for my sister and me, so he brought us back stage and I remember singing "Jeremiah was a bullfrog" in front of everyone. Every evening before dinner, if the weather was nice he sat on the porch and played his ukelele or his guitar singing Hawaiian songs. Bumatay is the original spelling of our last name and Bumatai is my cousins entertainment name, his name is Andy and he was a stand up comedian in Waikiki in the 80s & stared in a comedy show called "All in the Ohana in the late 80s. I hope this gives you a little idea about who he was...

Andrea K Bumatay- Jefferson
[email protected]

That is a great story, by chance could you post any photos?
it would be highly interesting to see any of your father's history.

This is why I love TC!! :wink:

What a great story!!

Mahalo's akjefferson and I too would love to see pictures if you possibly have any you'd like to share..

Aloha

Welcome to TC akjefferson!
Any other info or pictures would be great to add here on TC as this
may be the one place that the info of your fathers past lives on.

Also any other people who may have known him or worked with him.

Thanks again, great stuff.

PS is there any way that the title of this thread could be changed from "Paper?"
To a title that would bring more interest and be more fitting to what this thread has
become.
Just a thought.

On 2015-07-19 07:41, tikiskip wrote:

PS is there any way that the title of this thread could be changed from "Paper?"
To a title that would bring more interest and be more fitting to what this thread has
become.

I think we should ditch this thread and continue it here:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=10286&forum=1

Buzzy Out!

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, went to California where he met my uncles from my moms side, and became like a brother to them. They brought him to Washington, where they originally came from, he met my mom, and they were married. My aunt told me that his carvings were unique, and people from California paid for his trip to go back to California, to carve tiki's for there business. She also, said that he belonged to a tiki club and his carvings were in shows and many people wanted his carvings, and it was how he made his living until he married my mom, settled down, had my sister and me, and worked a nine to five, at the same job until his retirement. He 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 is about four or four and a half feet tall. It is similar to all of his work but the carving looked like it was holding two round trays, one on top of the other, but they were end tables kinda like shelves. The top table was mine and the bottom was my sisters. The mouth was wide, rectangular, and carved inward and used 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 but it was so long ago. He gave carvings as gifts to our relatives on a special occasion. One of my favorite carvings hung on the wall it was a head and shoulder profile of a beautiful Hawaiian girl, she had long hair, with a plumeria flower on one side, the way Island girls where them on one side by the ear, and on 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 miles 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.

[ Edited by: akjefferson 2015-07-20 20:15 ]

Wow that was great.
That is how lots of people find TC though after a Google search.

Any photos would be great!

Thanks again!