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

Aloha Tiki Tribe!
So as I was talking story with ya' I was telling ya' about how to get your dream job and your dreams together, by working with one of the largest Hawaiian souvenir companies in the islands. KC Hawaii.
They are some really nice folks and just brimming with "ALOHA"!
They make almost every single Tiki Souvenir you can buy in Hawaii at a Tourist gift shop.
One Job I am working on right now is designing some Beach Towels based on the paintings of my Tiki-Art.
Great Idea! Glad David Lopan came up with it. I love it, and I get to work on it! I'm really excited.
Problem, or as we like to say in the "Art Business", one "Challenge-and-learning-opertunity" is how do I
fit the painting that Mr. David Lopan likes on to a beach towel? They are different aspect ratios. Ones a long rectangle, and the other one's more square.

So, David Lopan wants...

..."The Moon of Manakoora": This Painting is named after an old Martin Denny tune, and is an acrylic painting on canvas, that's 24" x 30". However a beach towel is 30" x 60". Hmmm. Learning experience.
Idea one: Mirror the Art to make more so it's longer and fits the aspect ratio of the Towel.

This thought came to me when I saw how my gallery likes to have giclees "Gallery Wrapped" - meaning wrapped around a wooden frame, with image in the sides so it can be hung with out having to have it framed.

Okay, but this makes for a unusual beach towel design, and needs to look a little more like it's supposed to fit on a Beach Towel.

In the computer program photoshop I darken the mirrored areas to take emphasis off the repeated image.

Then I put on a big piece of Text. Tourists love Words that describe their vacations. "Aloha" is a good one, very well known, and well liked. Plus, it's not the name of One island, letting you sell the same towels on all the islands.

Then I wanted it to have a more customized look, than a "Right out of Photoshop" look, so I pick a more interesting font, and add my own hand made text on top of the other darkened area.

Then I create a "Window" out of the Big ol' word "ALOHA" to show some more Art on the Towel - this wave is from another painting I did.

Then I turn the thing side ways to check how the Painting is looking. The towel seems to work pretty much OK, on it's side or on it's end. Good. I then add in some Pin-striping to tie the elements together. Lucky (again) for me: the people who dig Tiki often also dig Hot-Rods and thus, pin-striping is something they might like on their beach towel.

Then I spice up the hand Done "Tiki-Shark" text at the top with a few line running across them to give it more color, and have both ends of the towel seem equally interesting.

Taa-Daa!
finished. Maybe. Now we have to wait to find out what David Lopan thinks of it after he LOOKS at it.

Okay. lesson is over.
See ya next time on how to "Do what you love, and Love what you do".

Mahalo!

For that you will need a "Six Demon Bag"

Atomic Tiki Punk - Of course! A Six Demon Bag! Whats in it?

Wind, fire, all that kind of thing!

"Great~! Thats what I thought!"

I like your descriptions of letting your mind go free.

I called my husband in to watch as I read him the story. He recognized the movie and clued me in, dang it. I was really letting myself believe this. That was a fun ride. I liked it.

Seeing your thought processes for the beach towel was terrific too. I hope it all works out. I enjoy your thread and every day I check my appointments on my TikiArtShark calendar.

Cheers, Wendy

Very cool image creation for the beach towel, I recognize that ocean wave from "Secret Cove" it really adds a nice touch in the Aloha font. Great work Brad!

Atomic Tiki Punk~ U AWK!
Wendy - very funny, you should give that movie a watch. It's really good. And my old Kung-Fu teacher (Eric Lee) is one of the bad guys in it, as well as being the action stunt double for the Asian lead. That's him.

Kai Koa ~ Thank you! An you are totally correct on where that wave came from!

I talked to Bobby, (He's David Lopan son, I do believe) and he really liked what I did to the Moon of Manakoora towel. Was very excited, and said it was like a whole new piece of art! Wow, I really dig it when you and your partners in production get equally excited about stuff - Tiki Stuff! Makes the the process more fun and you put in the extra hours to make it as good as you can. Mr. had one change request, which my agent said was what he was thinking too. They felt a little uncomfortable putting the name and logo of another company (MY Company) on what is supposed to be one of their towels, (Lopan Tiki Shark) I knew that might be an issue, I just wanted to throw something hand lettered in there that would show how it would work, and since I had this computer melt down a few months back, that was the only hand done lettering I had around! Heck my name is already on the towel, I don't need to be pig and try to hog up the whole darned thing anyways!

Lopan Aka' gonna replace (TIKI SHARK) with "The moon of Sooooo" in hand lettering. We both thought that was a good idea: heck it's descriptive (being the NAME of the painting) , and if any beach towel buying kids "Ima"The Moon of MANAKOORA" they just might learn a little about Tiki-Culture, and might even go out & rent "The HURRICANE" and watch a great old movie!
More google as I create some hand made letters....

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2014-02-20 20:09 ]

You have been busy Brad!
Such are the mind-numbing labours to translate painting to product...
Glad to hear the enthusiasm in your voice as well as get to look at that Gorgeous painting after staring at it everyday during it's visit to the studio so many years ago....Your energy,enthusiasm,child-like wonder,and PURE love of art is always a joy to hear! Go Brad!

Be sure to keep us updated in your fight against Cafe Press.

On 2014-02-20 20:24, TikiTacky wrote:
Be sure to keep us updated in your fight against Cafe Press.

It's tough! But, thank you for asking. This is a very serious case the deeper we get in. We got a new, better experienced, I.P. Person. Well, things are rocky, like I said. Cafe Press has hundreds of millions of dollars to fight me, and they are now fighting for their life - to show the federal government how their business plan zig-zags around the copy right laws will make them have to change their business plan and work legally with artists like every other business. So they are not going to let that happen. They have a river of money coming in, and are not about to let it be damned up! Our new I.P. Lawyer. Cathryn, told us today how mad she was getting the more she found out about our case, and what CAFE PRESS is doing. When she found out Cafe Press has plans to print out "users" ART on canvas and have it gallery-wrapped and then sell it on line! That is really scary. Total stealing of art, no copy right check (by the way the piece they stole from me WAS ACTUALLY COPYRIGHTED!) and Cafe Press is gonna start printing on canvas making fine art giclee, just like the ones you see in galleries, maybe with-out the same quality, or regard to the Signed and numbered editions Any artist is putting out of their work! - that's a total nightmare!

I think that should be frightening news to any, and every, artist!

Aloha Tiki Tribe!
Well, HAPPY ALOHA FRIDAY!

Working on my "The Moon Of Manakoora" Beach Towel, in partner ship with renowned and well established Hawaii souvenir company.: K C Hawaii.
I'm creating some Hand designed font of the title of the painting to replace the words "Tiki Shark".

Here's the start. You can get a peak at what I was listening to while I worked - and I wanted to know I was actually spelling "MANAKOORA" correctly.

Looking good, ...more later!

Brad (Tiki Shark) Parker
"Brad Parker creates lurid paintings that pull in influences from tiki, comics, and rock."

• Honolulu Magazine "The Best Of" 2012 Issue
  
  http://youtu.be/7HTCkZXaA

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2014-02-21 19:27 ]

Cafe Press should be shut down they have no morals or ethics.

I love the design of your words.

Wendy

Thanks Wendy, you are a wonderful support, when things feel like they are crumbling all around you, it's nice to go to TC and hear some kind words for the Tiki Tribe! Thank you! I'm still in shock over this thing, and our new I.P. Lawyer keeps finding more shocking things that Cafe Press is doing. So, if they are, as her research shows, going forward with printing artwork on canvas, getting it gallery wrapped , and then selling it on line, that not only damages the Artist, but also every gallery that sells art prints. What happens to the whole "Limited edition" idea? It's gone. If I was planning on only printing 10 to 50 giclee art prints on canvas of a painting, a limited edition, signed and numbered. What happens when Cafe Press sells the same print with no limit to how many they are going to print?

Once again, remember how this scam started: Cafe Press dot com stole my "Copy Righted" Art Work. It said a "user" up loaded it, and Cafe Press dose NOT check to see if the "user" has ANY RIGHTS, what so ever, to this art work. Cafe Press then manufactures hundreds (as in my case) of different items with the art work on them. Promotes them on their web site. Sells the items on their web site, keeps approx 90% of the sale. Ships the items in boxes marked in big bold text "CAFE PRESS "IT's HERE!" Then, sends 10% of the sale as a royalty to the "user" quarterly, or annually or however they worked it out. Cafe Press keeps on selling until someone, or the actual artist, tells them they don't have the rights to sell this art work. Proves to them THEY are the ones with the rights to the art! (sure NOW they ask for Proof!?). Then they take down the times, but keeps the 95% of the sales. They are getting away with this by hiding behind an out dated law that made it easy for small time artists to put stuff up on the web back in President Clinton's era, when the web was only used as a bulletin board. Now, this huge, publicly traded, corporation with a income in the hundreds of millions, because millions of "users" are up loading things globally, says it's not breaking any copy right laws.

Wow...this is totally insane.

If they decide to start cranking out Art Prints cheap, what why will happen to the Art Galley business?

Right now, we still don't know how to stop them. Cafe Ppess have hired the biggest law firm in LA to fight me, drag it out, and out spend me. They have nearly endless $ to do so.

Now the bad news:
Other business are starting to copy Cafe Press's Business plan of zig zagging around copy right law. It's a gold mine! . "Print on Demand" sites On-line- companies are cropping up on the net more and more.

As an artist, I don't have time to police every web site to see if they are selling my art work with out my knowledge or permission. I don't even know who these companies are, or what their names are. I only heard about Cafe Press from a client who canceled his order when I promised him a exclusive right to an image for a beach fowl. Then my client found it on over 200 items on Cafe Press.

So, I can't tell a client I have control over the use of my own copy-righted art work any more?

Jeepers Creepers! I keep telling everyone this is the copy right Apocalypse and they think I am over reacting... until they find their own art, or a family member, or a friend's art on line for sale, with out permission.

Scary times we are in.

Then, of course a concerned art patron found... this eh...this...

.....this ...thing on Cafe Press . com.... which, boy, it really did not make my day any better.

Here's the original painting.

Of course, my lawyer has asked me to tell you this is all my humble opinion, and has yet had the bright light of justice shown on it. But, it's not looking very good right now for the small time artist, or even well known artist, is all I can say. The law either works for all or it doesn't work for anyone? Right?

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2014-02-22 20:52 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe!
Well I'm working on a new Beach Towel with our new Partners KC HAwaii - a few changes still to be made, but it's looking good. I got the new design on the the new words (we all agreed upon) penciled in, THEN, I got them then into the computer, and now I'm fighting with my all time Nemesis "Adobe Illustrator"! Don't know exactly why, but this has been the hardest program for me to learn! I've been using it for years, but it's almost always a pain! It seems so un-intuitive! Vector Graphics! Bah! Hum-Bug! "Oh, it's the de-veel's work I tell ya!" Yes I know, it does make for beautiful printing... I agree! ...and I almost got the text worked out.... so... more soon!

Aloha Tiki Tribe!
So here's the new text for the beach towel created from my Low-Brow Tiki-Art painting, "The Moon of Manakoora".

Should be interesting if the next generation "googles" the word "Manakoora" out of curiosity -
Heck, they might learn little somethin' bout Tiki Culture history, a great exotica tune, and a great old movie!!
Here's the new towel design with the changes...

Mahalo!

The towel looks awesome!
Will they be available on the mainland?

Heath - thanks!

Short A: - We are working on it.

Long A: - We are making these towels with "KC Hawaii" who is one of the big producers of souvenirs in Hawaii, however, we are working to connect them up with Showroom 504 in the Gift Mart in Los Angles (at least with products featuring my art, they have not reached out and sold out side Hawaii before and seem a tad shy). If Showroom 504 carries the towels, buyers from all over the western United States will see them and be able to order them for their stores.

Hope all that made sense. All this wholesale/retail/getting-things-to-market can seem so darned complex!

aloha tiki tribe!
Well I'm slapping a brush on a few of the last batch of Body Glove Tiki-Mugs!

Here we can watch "Old Man Parker" working in the "Arts & Crafts " room in the Artist's Senior home...got a nice view though!

Oh ... wait... maybe he forgot where he was, and what he was doing... Happens. He's having these "spells" now, don't ya' know.

There we go! Now he remembers! Oh yeah. Tiki-Mugs!

If you need a tiki-Mug , (and wanna get 'em before the old Man forgets how to do 'em,)
contact:
http://www.mahalotiki.com
[email protected]
[email protected]

Brad (Tiki Shark) Parker
"Brad Parker creates lurid paintings that pull in influences from tiki, comics, and rock."

• Honolulu Magazine "The Best Of" 2012 Issue
  
  http://youtu.be/7HTCkZXaA

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2014-02-25 20:50 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe!
So, I'm working on transmogrifying my painting "Beyond the Reef" into a super swanky beach towel. Working with one of the biggest souvenir manufacturers "KC Hawaii" I know if we get these done right we'll get orders and they'll get out in at least "some" stores here in Hawaii for sure, and maybe on the mainland too!
Here's the first steps...

This one is to be the other towel in the paired set of two.
#1 is "The Moon of Manakoora"

"Moon of Manakoora"

Next : ""Beyond the Reef:.

You may notice that I changed the original painting's ship's figure-head from holding a "barber Pole" to holding a "Tiki" - as this was a request of the art-patron who requested the original painting and had special meaning for him, yet, I thought a Tiki was more universal in appeal for the average beach towel buyer.

Here's the lay out. The full painting is on the towel, Excess aspect ratio is mirrored and shadowed images.
I switched out the word "ALOHA: with the word "YOHO!" for the Pirate Theme.

My First try was with a Tiger Shark behind the words "YOHO!"

Problem is this is a lot of blue, and no warm colors to frame the cool colored painting in the middle of the towel.
SO....

I switched to warm wooden faces of Tikis behind the words "YOHO!"

There, now we have some nice warm colors to help bring out the cool toned painting/image in the center.
ALOHA! More to come.....

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2014-02-24 14:54 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe!

...the work space.

Aloha Tiki Tribe!

Knifehead sez: "OK, stop gawking at the new Art-Book you just got in da' mail!
Yeah, it's Ragnar's new book - "APHORISMYTH" and it toattlay rawks. Gots everything
from rough sketches to finished illustrations that make you want to rip out your own
eyes they are so beautiful."

Brad (Tiki Shark) Parker
"Brad Parker creates lurid paintings that pull in influences from tiki, comics, and rock."

• Honolulu Magazine "The Best Of" 2012 Issue
  
  http://youtu.be/7HTCkZXaA

[ Edited by: tiki shark art 2014-02-25 20:47 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe!
Here's some sketches as I play with hand lettering and fonts.

Didn't have much time today to work on it. More later.

Here you go Brad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIu85WQTPRc

AS you well know "Beyond the Reef" is my favorite of your paintings, I really am digging the towel treatment of it so far! Grrreat stuff! It's fun watching you dig into the graphic design aspect of creating typography. Illustrator isn't all THAT bad. :wink:

On 2014-02-26 03:13, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
Here you go Brad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIu85WQTPRc

Looks Great so far! Great moody tone! Let's hope they keep it serious.
(and don't fall back on dumb-New-Yorker-Mayor-humor the way the 1980's US version did.)
Sheesh, it's mostly unwatchable now because of the horrible jokes.
"Cloverfield" was serious, I liked it.
"The Host", was serious (mostly), I Liked that too, even if it was a little depressing.
Japanese Godzilla - is stylized.
Godzilla is kinda' like Japanese Bunraku (traditional Japanese puppet theater). We know they are big puppets, we know the guys working the rod puppets dressed as ninja are not supposed to be there (hence invisible ninjas!), but... the Puppets are really, really beautiful, and really, really cool!
Same with Godzilla.
We know he's a guy in a suit, but it's a really beautifully detailed suit ....and there are LOTS of great explosions!

Perhaps my favorite Godzilla film: "Godzilla Vs Destroyah" was darned serious. I really like it. - Great in that traditional, stylized form, that TOHO has of presenting Godzilla. Got everything you could ever want in a Godzilla movie. Even Godzilla's radioactive heart going critical and if it melts down the whole planet will go with him! (hmmm.... too much like art imitating real life!)

Anyways, you gotta' know it ALL comes down to good story telling.
No matter how good your effects.
A good story is what we all really want.

(....and LOTS of great explosions!)

[ Edited by: tiki shark art 2014-02-26 17:24 ]

I need one of those Beyond the Reef beach towels, Brad!

On 2014-02-26 18:11, Tele295 wrote:
I need one of those Beyond the Reef beach towels, Brad!

I Agree!
You do need one!
Heck, You DESERVE one!!
You all do!
Every Tourist should! Every local should too!
I want to increase the quality of souvenirs being sold in Hawaii.
For too many years I've seen the same old, sad, tired, re-used designs being cranked out by the same companies. These designs do not reflect the swanky hipster Tiki-Art Renaissance going on in many other parts of the world!
Sadly, Hawaii itself, largely lacks the awareness of "Tiki-Culture!'

I was asked to lecture at the "University of Hawaii" on "Tiki Culture". I'm happy to say the lecturer was packed to standing-room-only, extremely well received! The young students (and many adult students) of Hawaiian ancestry had no idea how their own Heritage has inspired and invigorated pop-culture / counter-culture & Kustom-Kulture around the world!

I'm designing four Beach Towels in partner ship with K C Hawaii. Four of what I hope are a set of Low-Brow Tiki-Art Beach Towels so magnificent that the buyers for local retail chains won't be able to say "No" to them.

If they do well, we'll move on and do more. All kinds of new stuff! BEACH TOWELS: Set # 1 should be: "Beyond The Reef","The Moon of Manakoora","Tiki Cat" and "Forbidden Island".

If you would like to urge on the production of these beach towels, Drop K.C Hawaii a letter to let them know you are excited about this rumor you heard about them making Brad Tiki-Shark Parker "Tiki-Art" Souvenirs! What can swanky stuff can you get? Let 'em know you'd buy these towels if you saw them on the shelfs, and ask them when, and where, will they will be available for sale!

Folks, It's hard to change the way people have been doing things. Especially in business, where money is on the line. "NEW" can be scary! So, boost the confidence of K.C. Hawaii, and let them know there ARE people looking to buy new hipster-style products, not just the same old stuff you saw on your last 6 vacations to Hawaii all featuring the same old Hula girl & or happy dolphins - you know the ones - we've seen for the last 40 years! K C Hawaii has never actually made Beach Towels - so they could use some encouragement to go up against the other souvenir towel manufacturers.

Send your letters to:

K.C. Hawaii
Sales Department
98-023 Hekaha Street,
#111
Aiea, Hawaii 96701

Other than that , I will always post here, and in the Tiki Market place on TC, when new TIKI-SWAG comes out!
ALOHA and THANS!

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2014-02-27 05:08 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe,
Here's a little more work on the lettering...wow, me and fonts go round and round...
huge fight, change unchanged change unchanged... in the end less is more.
You gotta read the darned thing.

Brad,

I'll definitely do that! Any chance you might be able to get an email for KC Hawaii?

I also want to note that I would happily pay more money (within reason) for an item actually made in Hawaii. I bet a lot if other people would too.

On 2014-02-27 11:49, TikiTacky wrote:
Brad,

I'll definitely do that! Any chance you might be able to get an email for KC Hawaii?

I also want to note that I would happily pay more money (within reason) for an item actually made in Hawaii. I bet a lot if other people would too.

Hmmm... well, other than "my art work", I can't tell you what tourist "art" gift items are 100% made in Hawaii!
K C Hawaii. let's see the web site is http://www.kchawaii.com. I don't think it's a good idea to hand out the president's e-mail,
so, if you only want to e-mail, u can can e-mail to [email protected]

Thanx!

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2014-02-27 13:10 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe,
Here's the "Beyond the Reef" beach towel design so far...

Here's the "Moon of Manakoora" beach towel.

So, both of these are basically cool blue paintings on towels surrounded by
warm colored text.

So far so good, let's hope the Factory can create some color separations that work well enough
that theses come out lookin' half as good as they do here.

That can be a whole art into is self. Finding a good factory, that don'st charge too much
but still produces good towels is an ongoing "Indiana Jones"-like search.

ALOHA, and Happy Aloha Friday!

Hey Brad just thought I would give you a tourist perspective of what I would look for in a beach towel purchased in Hawaiian gift shop, here goes: "Beyond the Reef" is great but "Yoho!" is not something I would associate with Hawaii, the pirate theme is cool and all but Im wanting a souvenir, so how about "ALOHA" on the "Beyond the Reef" beach towel.

Now for the "The Moon of Manakoora" beach towel I think it would be cool with the word "SHAKA" on it. That word seems to flow with the mysterious imagery.

Just my opinion.

They look great no matter what!

Thanx Kai Koa - your suggestion is a good one. Ha, I'm laughing because it's now a standing joke around the Tiki Shark Studio just what "four letter word" should go on the beach towel...

I'm working out the words with our staff, and our new partners and marketing folks. I may go with "T I K I " ...

ALOHA!

[ Edited by: tiki shark art 2014-03-02 18:53 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe
Here's a sample of the "Beyond the Reef" beach Towel.
Pirates and Tikis...

A strange mash of pop-cultures for sure!

On 2014-02-28 21:19, Kai Koa wrote:
Hey Brad just thought I would give you a tourist perspective of what I would look for in a beach towel purchased in Hawaiian gift shop, here goes: "Beyond the Reef" is great but "Yoho!" is not something I would associate with Hawaii, the pirate theme is cool and all but Im wanting a souvenir, so how about "ALOHA" on the "Beyond the Reef" beach towel.

Now for the "The Moon of Manakoora" beach towel I think it would be cool with the word "SHAKA" on it. That word seems to flow with the mysterious imagery.

Just my opinion.

They look great no matter what!

Kai Koa, so you stepped right into the middle of this on going debate about the text on the beach towels. We all like, (this is folks inside Tiki Shark & K C Hawaii, plus the kind in put of fans like yourself) all seem to think it's cool there are 4 in the set: 2 with no text, and 2 WITH text.

I, personally, like that if you "google" the text "Moon of Manakoora" and "Beyond the Reef" you learn they were not only the names of Tiki-Art paintings,- they are old exotic a songs. (which I named my paintings after) I am very inspired by music. I like that maybe someone will learn about Exotica who never heard of it before. Hear Martin Denny for the first Time! Become a Tiki -Culture / exotica Fan. They must already like TIKIs, they bought the fowl, now, theycan discover the music from that mid century tiki-time period!

Kai Koa mentioned changing the "Pirate"-ish"YO-HO!" on the "Beyond the Reef" towel It might might get changed to something more like "Aloha" or Shaka" or "TIKI" to be more Hawaiiana, and Tiki-culture.

There is a debate going on about what 4 letter words I should put on my towels. ( !).

What is funny though, is the folks who are Hawaiian don't mind the "Yo-Ho!", but the Main-landers think it's not "Hawaiian enough"! Strange, you would think the opposite, but not at all. The Hard Core "Tiki -Culture " folks all seem to be the folks NOT living in Hawaii... I guess cause if you live on the islands, u are are submerged in "it", so we like a little some thing else....but those from ..say Nebraska, in a cold, freezing March, they want MORE HAWAII, and only HAWAII Please! I understand....

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2014-03-03 22:53 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe:
Still work to be done, but these are the first "roughs" of our first Set of FOUR Tiki-Culture Beach Towels with our new Partners KC HAwaii!
1.) "Tiki Cat"

2) "Forbidden Island"

3) "The Moon of Manakoora"

4.) "Beyond The Reef"

I think perhaps I am leaning towards Kai-Koa's thoughts on Pirates vs Tikis more. Maybe we should use a more "Tiki-Culture word than a Pirate word "YoHo!" - heck, we love Pirates here in Da' Island too...but folks do come here more for Tikis of the Hawaiiana then "Pirates of the Caribbean".

Any other thoughts, my ohana? Any four letter words you like to throw my way. (he he he - I know I'm really wearing that one out, but I think it's funny every time!) Laters, and thanks for the input! I would have felt funny not having thought that one all the way through before it hit the shelfs... really, no one here on the island caught it! Weird! Just shows you how Tiki-culture is not centered around Hawaii at all... and what does that mean? I keep thinking back when I lectured at the U of M to Hawaiian students who didn't know there are Tiki-Bars all over the world. (!)

A-YO-HO-LO-HA!

Brad (Tiki Shark) Parker
"Brad Parker creates lurid paintings that pull in influences from tiki, comics, and rock."

• Honolulu Magazine "The Best Of" 2012 Issue
  
  http://youtu.be/7HTCkZXaA

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2014-03-03 23:38 ]

I knew I couldn't be the only one that didn't care for the "YOHO!" on "Beyond the Reef" besides it not being more towards Hawaiian or Tiki related in my opinion, I just pictured some gangster or hiphop dude using the word "YOHO!" while yelling at his girl. If it said "YOHOHO!" I could understand the pirate theme better but I know that's a lot of words to put on the towel, not like the 4 letter word like "TIKI" or 5 letter words like "SHAKA" or "ALOHA" Anyway with all that being said I still would buy your "RAWKIN!" beach towels, and I look forward to seeing them soon. Congrats on getting them distributed through the Biggest chain stores in Hawaii for Hawaiiana souvenirs!

You're going to let us know when we can buy the set of 4 towels, right, Brad?

Hey thanks, when you put it that way it makes even more since t use a different word.. well we got a ways to go before they are gonna be on the shefls anywhere.... fist pass at this point....many more ton come... so, it'll months before their ready for shops... I' ll keep u posted!

Your welcome Brad, and I thought of another 4 letter word that might be cool to use on a beach towel: "KONA"
Tourist like to take home keepsake's from where they are visiting, especially ones that specifically name where they vacationed in Hawaii.
But then again if your making the towels to be sold throughout the islands then specifically naming one of the island area's like "KONA" might not work for a beach towel on Maui.
Oh well, whatever you do Im sure it's going to RAWK!

On 2014-03-05 09:12, Kai Koa wrote:
Your welcome Brad, and I thought of another 4 letter word that might be cool to use on a beach towel: "KONA"
Tourist like to take home keepsake's from where they are visiting, especially ones that specifically name where they vacationed in Hawaii.
But then again if your making the towels to be sold throughout the islands then specifically naming one of the island area's like "KONA" might not work for a beach towel on Maui.
Oh well, whatever you do Im sure it's going to RAWK!

Yeah "KONA" could work on the Big Island, and on Oahu, but there are no "Kona"s on Maui or the other islands. Or even the Main-land, if they get that far... So has to be a word that is everywhere. Could put on "AIR" but, that might be too "everywhere"!

I always like the word HULA, its so Hawaiian.

HULA! Awesome idea! I like it! Thanks!

Okay... sorry if everyone is tired of hearing about this, but it effects all artists, tiki or otherwise.
So more on the local West Hawaii Today Newspaper about the Cafe Press using and selling gift items with my painting "Forbidden Island" on them, without my knowledge or permission.

http://westhawaiitoday.com/community-bulletin/new-development-kona-artist-s-lawsuit-alleged-copyright-infringement?fb_action_ids=10202543142152532&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582

Tiki Tribe, what I don't understand, is the money they are spending on I.P. Lawyers (which cost like about 1000 an hour) from this really huge law firm in L.,A. , and then hiring another lawyer in Hawaii to fight me in this...It's costing them more to pay lawyers then to just said, "Oh, sorry Brad. That is your painting. Sorry we didn't check for any proper copy rights, here's some dough. We'll try to be more careful." Right? Be nice about making a mistake? Costing me a big sale. (well, a HUGE sale) But no, they come back with all this "your case has no merit." So, we had to go public. They just don't seem to care. Like they really are too big to care. I guess there are people out there that will happily step on the little guy, steal from small time artists right and left...makin' big bucks... very depressing and sad.

Not tired hearing about this! I am anxiously waiting to see how this plays out. I don't want to believe that this kind of stuff can happen without any repercussions.

If they admit a 'mistake' about your case, then they'll have to admit 'mistakes were made' on other items as well. Their whole business model could fold - anyway, that's my guess on why the full court press.

HAppy Aloha Friday - Tiki Tribe!
Thanks for the kind words and Aloha. Yes, that's true, if they say they did wrong here, that means they did wrong on...oh, what was it the other sides lawyer said, they get about 2 million up loads every few weeks? And never check a single one for proper copy right? Wow...yeah their whole business plan is structured on getting away with this kinda stuff...

Well made the front page of my small town... lots of support for the local artists here. Nice folks! 

Here a link the the whole news story:
http://westhawaiitoday.com/news/local-news/kona-artist-sues-cafepress-alleged-copyright-infringement?fb_action_ids=10202545399968976&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582

Aloha Tiki Tribe!
it's raining on the Big Island today...staying in the studio and watching old sci-fi movies and painting.

I'm getting the "underpainting" done....and changing some things ...

I changed the clouds in the sky, and the shape of the crest of the wave so you could see that "glow" through the wave (I love that part).
More laters....