Rounding off my first year of Tiki carving

nice new piece bro!

Just be careful going thin on detail stuff...it totally sucks when they break!

I just learned that one the hard way recently when I had a 7 1/2 footer break in half on me.

Either way, great start.

I use to love to visit this site! Benzart,Mai Tiki,Crazy Al and the rest of the fine bunch of carvers that I havent mentioned.They are, and will continue to inspire me. But How do you expect these pioneers of carving to keep giving us inspiration and boost our spirits with their words of wisdom when their work is getting copied! Dude get your own style! You have copied enough, It is past flattery now! I cant believe no one else has called you out on it. Lets see some originals. You obviously have talent,Show it. My .02c, TikiStan

Thanks pjc5150, it is getting a little delicate in the waist area.

TikiStan - Sorry you feel I'm copying work. I'm still in my infancy as a carver (1.5 years), and I'll admit I am mesmerized by the work of the artists on Tiki Central and I do draw on their knowledge and experience to make good artistic and design choices. That's part of developing a style and what I thought was the reason for this forum.

Next time you're in FL, stop by, we'll have a drink.
Mahalo

huh? Who exactly is it he's supposed to be copying? That's a pretty shitty accusation. So, you've NEVER gotten ideas from looking at someone else's work? And since Tikis pre-date all of us, aren't we really ALL copying the ancient polynesians?

That last one looks pretty original to me. Don't be a dick.

Well fielded.
Carve deeper.

Tiki Russ, Studying artist is what it is all about! And all artist deal with fact that we will be copied. But you have talent man! Doing a tribute piece to an artist is one thing, but going down the road of someone else's style, that is a waste of time. Thanks for the drink offer brother I appreciate that, Florida has some palm dust flying, Pretty cool!

Sidekick, I am not being a "dick" as you put it. But if you cannot see the style of the artist that I am talking about than you are an idiot!

sidekick? no. never met the guy.

It just didn't seem like constructive criticism to me, more like you just calling the guy a hack. That's just my opinion. And I have a life outside of this message board so I'm not familiar with everyone's work. Sorry if that makes me an "idiot".

Have a nice day.

If a blues riff hadn't been "copied" would rock have been invented?

Crazy Al is one of my biggest inspirations and if you feel I've copied him/his style, and if it even remotely resembles his work... I'll take that as a compliment, but it wasn't intended as a copy of his style or any of his pieces.

The latest one, I'm trying to go more traditional. If you look through my work, I think you'll see I've tried many different styles.

Here are some of the latest chops on the current piece. This one is for my wife's grandparents, I've done some other pieces for them but they've been asking for this for a while. USPS won't deliver to their door slot anymore.

Also added a little color too, bet you can't guess what their street number is.

On 2011-06-29 12:07, Tiki Russ wrote:
... bet you can't guess what their street number is.

One of the most Tiki numbers ever, 135?

Nope.

dude that turned out SIIICK!! Really like the implementation of the mailbox. Colors are very cool as well. Great Job!

Thanks, hopefully he can survive the neighborhood he's going to!

well, at least now I know why you went so thin on the headdress...

...you had to stick a mailbox in there!

Just installed the mailbox today. Very happy with the results as are the new owners and I beat the rain!

Very Cool! That turned out great...I'm sure the mail man will get a kick out of it as well :)

Been a while since I've been on here, but here's a couple new pieces and some old ones.

nice!

I like 'em.

Way cool

a GREEN Marq! Very nice!

I'm digging your tikis. Very cool style and creative colors. I am just starting carving and draw inspiration from you and your carvings. Like you said, we all have influences and it is a combination of those influences and our own personal likes that make up each individual styles. I am very impressed with your fingers and toes (on the tikis, that is). Hell, I don't think I can draw those let alone carve them. But after seeing yours, I sure will try! Aloha

Cool work, nice colours. I dig your finishes
Keep it up

Thanks everybody, working on a lot of new pieces. Hope to get some pics up soon.

On 2012-10-16 10:06, Trailerpark Tiki wrote:
I'm digging your tikis. Very cool style and creative colors. I am just starting carving and draw inspiration from you and your carvings. Like you said, we all have influences and it is a combination of those influences and our own personal likes that make up each individual styles. I am very impressed with your fingers and toes (on the tikis, that is). Hell, I don't think I can draw those let alone carve them. But after seeing yours, I sure will try! Aloha

I appreciate your comments and hope to see a lot more Tikis from the Trailerpark! Keep at it, you've got a nice start going!!

Let's have those pics! Love the mailbox!

On 2011-06-25 22:00, canyonlaketiki wrote:
I use to love to visit this site! Benzart,Mai Tiki,Crazy Al and the rest of the fine bunch of carvers that I havent mentioned.They are, and will continue to inspire me. But How do you expect these pioneers of carving to keep giving us inspiration and boost our spirits with their words of wisdom when their work is getting copied! Dude get your own style! You have copied enough, It is past flattery now! I cant believe no one else has called you out on it. Lets see some originals. You obviously have talent,Show it. My .02c, TikiStan

This is why I hate forums.
Keep doing your thing, style is a work in progress. every time you carve you will find something about a carved feature you love. eventually you will build up a whole bag of favorite features and incorporate it into one carving. This is when your style is born! We all startd because we saw a tiki somewhere and thought to ourself... COOL, I bet I could do that! Tikis date back way before any one on this forum, So I guess we are all copy cats.

well, let's not blur the line between doing traditional tikis that have been interpreted by thousands of different carvers over the centuries, and copying an individual artist's style over and over again and calling it your own.

One is traditional art, and the other is plagiarism, plain and simple.

That being said I don't really think that's what was happening here. To a certain degree we all emulate the artists that influence us...but at some point as artists we have to kind of "leave the nest" and develop our own style. All part of the progression...