my latest project... guerrilla tiki..

I've always been impressed by your carvings but I really dig you doing guerrilla tikis. I'm in for ten bucks bail money too.

aloha, tikicoma

I'm good for a bond donation too. Hope all the interviews and going well for you.

I'll help post bail :lol:

I like the moss/patina on this one Jeff, TOO COOL

thanks bro...

I gave him to a charity auction for people with spinal cord injuries,,, so he probably was sold for like 50 bucks... lol... :wink:

drove past tiki number 9 today. he looks lonely settin there by the RR trax...

well, there's one on the other side of the overpass I will be carving as well...

so he won't be lonely for long... :wink:

a little more news stuff...

which is not why I started doing this... and I am not really over-the-top thrilled about the quote with which they ended... but all & all I am happy and feel like they didn't make me look like a total douche,,, and they spent some time with me so I have no real complaints...

but soon all this stuff will fade and I will be back at it.. by this time next year I hope there are at least 100 of these pieces statewide...

http://video.tampabay.com/Tiki-carver-makes-art-out-of-dead-trees-all-over-Tampa--27454007

Good for you, Man!

Good for You Jeff!
Would be cool if you could get a branding iron or a stamp that you could quickly
sign your art as you go. (SST would do)
Who knows where these will end up, plus an artist should always sign his work.

They do have your style as well though.

Cool idea.

U rock dude...

Great video and article.

"I knew he was a ninja artist, that was my gut feeling. Everybody I've talked to loves it."

• Tom Snelling, Tampa Director of Planning and Development

Jeff, you are indeed a Ninja Artist!

And a great example of simply DOING it: Not just consuming Tiki, not just moping around, complaining there is no Tiki - just going out and DOING Tiki!

Just doing something will always set things in motion.

On 2014-10-05 20:09, bigbrotiki wrote:
And a great example of simply DOING it: Not just consuming Tiki, not just moping around, complaining there is no Tiki - just going out and DOING Tiki!

Just doing something will always set things in motion.

Ditto!

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2014-10-05 21:00 ]

oh yeah...

a couple of days ago I did this tiki at Eureka Springs Park,,, and the maintenance / ranger dude caught me, but he was cool and we made a deal... he'd walk away, and I had to give the tiki a beard like his so it looked like him,,,

so ladies and gentlemen, the "GRIZZ GUANKO"... lol..

[ Edited by: pjc5150 2014-10-10 21:01 ]

ok, so yeah... all the news stuff has passed, and I can kinda get back on track...

I was almost arrested again today. lol... I'm not kidding.

but some city officials came down and told the cops to bail, and they did...

this is the riverwalk, which is like, the mayor's pet project, so they were about to put the bracelets on me... lol.. see the lady in the bottom right? she was my hero today. :)

it was kinda funny... she pulls up and walks up to me kinda smiling (and there are cop cars all over)... and she says "you're the guerrilla tiki artist aren't you?" and I was like "yeah, that's me... and uhh, I think they're gonna like, arrest me or something." and she said "just go back to what you were doing,,, I'll talk to them." and within 5 minutes the police were leaving.

She is the "resource coordinator" for the planning and developing thingie for the city... once she came back from talking to the police for me, she was very nice and in so many words asked could come visit her at her office on monday so we can kinda get on the same page here and "keep me from going to jail".. lol

so anyway, it is my most involved guerrilla piece to date... not done yet,, but it will be in a day or 2. Hawaiian inspired... probably ten feet tall..

2 days later I heard it was gone...

I wonder who could have taken it??? lol...

Good to see there is good sense left in this world!

Right on, right on, right on!

thank you Sven.

my goal is 100 guerrilla tikis all over florida within a year.

You da Man!! Keep up the good work. I'm all in for a "Keep out of Jail Fund".

Nice to see you're getting out there and making new friends!
It's also good that you're getting some appreciation for your efforts from the general public.

I think it's great you've taken the initiative to do this.

Bump.

Jeff, how are things going in the Tampa area with your "public works" projects? Any updates, new projects, feedback you've received, new publicity, more support?

Hope you and your carving tools, and your tikis, are doing well!

I was also wondering about this. I noticed recently that the tiki by the Armory has been removed. No surprise i guess, since they are converting the entire complex into the TJCC...

We haven't heard back from Jeff yet, so he's either very busy -- or in jail! :)

Bummer that the armory tiki is gone, however it could make a re-appearance when they're done with the redevelopment you mentioned. Fingers are crossed!

It is a shame but I am not sure Jeff is coming back to TC anytime soon. You can check his last post in his thread under Surf Soul tiki under tiki carving.

spam

So what is the upates?

Did all the tiki stay in place?
Did you carve more?
Are you in Jail?

Do you need bail?

Nice job on the Bali Hut tiki.

This deserves a bump. I can’t carve, but it makes me want to get out there and, as Sven said, “do tiki” somehow. I wish all the thread’s pictures had been preserved, but there are some shots of Jeff’s work in this video first linked on page 4:

http://video.tampabay.com/Tiki-carver-makes-art-out-of-dead-trees-all-over-Tampa--27454007

On 2014-09-25 15:01, Hakalugi wrote:
In the news:

"Tampa’s surf soul tiki artist gone rogue":

http://cltampa.com/politicalanimal/archives/2014/09/24/tampas-surf-soul-tiki-artist-gone-rogue#.VCSQDildWcw

And that link is now bad, but I was able to find the article here:

https://www.cltampa.com/news-views/article/20759420/tampas-surf-soul-tiki-artist-gone-rogue

Tampa’s surf soul tiki artist gone rogue
By Ashley Whitney, September 24, 2014

Today, at what he considers one of Tampa’s Cuban cultural and historical epicenters, Tampa native and local Surf Soul Tiki artist Jeff Chouinard told the story of how he fell in love with carving tikis and why he has decided to transform dead and forgotten palm trees into pieces of art for the community to enjoy.

After having spent 13 years repossessing cars and running the recovery and collections department for a finance company (which he says was “raping people of their money for corporate America”), he was tired of what he was doing and decided to leave that career. As a lifelong surfer and Polynesian enthusiast, he wanted to enjoy handcrafted Tikis in his home.

When he realized he couldn’t afford to buy Tikis, he decided to make one himself. He said to himself, “It's wood and tools. I can do this. I used to build furniture in the basement with my dad, and I've built hot rods.” He went down to Harbor Freight, bought $50 worth of cheap tools and wood, borrowed a chainsaw, and made his first Tiki. He said he fell in love and started making them constantly.

That was five years ago. Since then he estimates he's made between 500 and 600 tikis. Now he's started a whole new project. He made phone calls to city of Tampa officials to find out about the many lone dead palm trees he has seen around town over the last few years. He says they didn’t respond or seem very interested. What became his deciding principle was the old saying, “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.”

The rogue tiki operation was going well until Tuesday. While carving his eighth tiki he was stopped by a police officer. He provided the officer with a photo proving the tree was in fact dead before he began carving. The police officer was very nice, but told him that he was going to submit his information to the city and the Department of Parks and Rec. Chouinard says he already has an attorney ready to defend him and any fines he may incur. For his next rogue tiki carvings, he says,“If you’ve ever read The Art of War, I don't know the exact Sun Tzu quote... but it's basically that a moving target is harder to hit.”

Feedback from the community has been very positive so far. He says their only concern is that the trees are in fact dead. As soon as he assured interested parties that he's only carving dead trees, everyone was on board. He said that when Creative Loafing’s Todd Bates came by to do a photo shoot for this story, “There must have been 50 people that honked and slowed down in support.”
Chouinard explains the history of tiki enthusiasts. He says it is essentially a lifestyle of escapism — that beyond the mundane and meaningless confines of cubicle confinement, “a lot of people look at the island sort of existence as something they wish they could have. It's the sort of simplicity of that existence that inspires them."

His entire yard and front porch have become his workshop and what looks like a tiki garden. There are piles of wood shavings everywhere. His yard is still very welcoming; it is filled with flowering plumeria trees and hibiscus bushes, and of course driftwood and tikis, both finished pieces and works in progress.

After just two years of teaching himself how to carve and with no instruction, he was approached by two world-famous tiki artists, Benzart Davis and Will Anders of South Florida. Both have become his mentors. “They are the best guys in the game; those are the guys I call when I need help,” he says.

His greatest inspiration for Polynesian culture stems from his grandfather, the only living plank holder from the most decorated ship in naval history, the USS Nicholas. “We were once talking about the whole phenomenon of what happened after WWII when all the GI’s came back.” His grandfather said a lot of them served on beautiful South Pacific Islands adorned with tikis.

He thinks that GI's, having endured daily near-death experiences, returned to the States hardened and easily bored. “They came back to their boring, mundane lives. Thus, the emergence of the Hot Rod and motorcycle movement was founded, as well as the recreation of South Pacific Island culture. Tiki restaurants were everywhere back then.” He says that during the Vietnam War the aesthetic appeal of the Polynesian lifestyle disappeared, but he believes that there's been a resurgence of interest.

As for the Rogue Tiki Project, he says he plans to take it statewide. “I'm going to be taking my little chainsaw, which I have named 'Little Precious,' with me everywhere I go.” He hopes to do some pieces in Cocoa Beach and Fort Lauderdale next time he goes surfing. He already has people in California interested in having him carve there.
Aside from being an artist, Jeff Chouinard has given back to the community through several fundraising and charity events. He's donated pieces and raised money for Hooked on Hope, the Brandon Charity Foundation, and many silent auctions. Most recently he held a fundraiser for a friend who is undergoing chemotherapy. He raised $2,000 selling his artwork for that event. He also volunteers every summer at a camp called Faces of Courage. One of his most notable achievements is that one of his pieces was put on display this year, at the famous tiki restaurant and bar The Mai-Kai, in Fort Lauderdale.

You can find his rogue tikis at Al Lopez park, as well as on Davis Islands and around Riverside Heights. Keep your eyes open when driving around town. Every tiki is unique and completely different from the last.

Anybody know if the carvings mentioned in the last paragraph are still standing?

What a great article!! Thanks Hamo for reposting it, I did not see it when it was first posted a couple years ago.

Just keep in mind: Jeff Chouinard is a thief. He stopped posting here after ripping me off.

On 2018-07-09 20:29, Greg_D_R wrote:
Just keep in mind: Jeff Chouinard is a thief. He stopped posting here after ripping me off.

Are you on Facebook Greg? There was a post from someone about a month ago in one of the Tiki groups who had been ripped off by him also and then a LOT of people spoke up who he had done it to as well.
Apparently since then he has been in contact with a few people but it remains to be seen how many will either get the carving they asked for or their money back.

Well the guerrilla tiki thing was a cool idea.

AND when I posted...
"Did you carve more?"
Are you in Jail?

Do you need bail?"

I was joking about the cops jailing Jeff for carving the tiki without permission not about any rips offs Jeff may have done as I never heard of any.

The best plan is to never pay money until the work or thing you are buying is done or in your hand, I have only had a problem once when a guy said he paid me already Ha!
He got me that time, but I lost what I thought was a friend.

Lastly Jeff left at the time that new guy came to TC and everybody went goo goo crazy over the carvings this new guy was doing while Jeff's posts went with little feedback.
I always thought that was the reason Jeff left TC, And Jeff helped teach the guy to carve!
This may or may not be the reason Jeff left I don't know for sure.

But a lot of people have left for this reason I have seen over the years.

After a blizzard of posts for about a year the new guy is gone too.