tikis by marcus thorn

This piece was commissioned by Darryl Von Wierdo for an Erotica Art Show at Kingscliff Australia in June 2004

A little about me, I have been involved in the Hot Rod/Rockabilly scene for about 15 years and have been expressing myself through art in one form or another since my early teens - originally through painting. The "Beat" in Tiki Beat is meant to express the Polynesian drums and the Beatnik rythm associated with popculture.

My Tikis are now better travellers than I am - I now have pieces in Japan, England and various states of Australia. Shige Suganuma of Mooneyes proudly displayed in his foyer in Japan. Recently I have been approached to carve pieces for upcoming resort developments in Northern Queensland. It is a very humbling experience to have my artwork admired and sought after.

[ Edited by: tiki beat by marcus thorn on 2005-06-01 22:16 ]

Welcome to TC Marcus, that's quite a weener you have.

Welcome dude. Looking forward to seeing some of your stuff.

For everyone else, I have a seen a little of this guys work in Cruzin magazine (an Aussie rod and kustom mag). It is very nice. Yeh - another bloody Aussie :)

Big Welcome Marcus Thorn. Nice tiki you have there only I thought he would be smiling ear to ear being built like that! Joking of course.
Looks like you will fit in just nicely around here. we would Love to see more pic's of your are too so bring'em on down.

The tiki is super and the carver...pretty super too. :wink:

[ Edited by: Atomicchick on 2005-06-01 08:52 ]

tiki looks good, wish the picture was a little bigger. like others have said welcome to the central.

OK i'm a idiot, you can just click on the picture and it gets bigger. Sorry. Any way good job.

[ Edited by: octane on 2005-06-02 09:58 ]

Thanks for the warm welcome. Sam I May have been under the influence of an ale or two at this art show. I checked out your site -very very cool mate.

[ Edited by: tiki beat by marcus thorn on 2005-06-02 15:59 ]

Cool tiki, Marcus. You look a little tired in that picture. That's the sign of a good artist/carver - staying up all hours of the night because you're too engrossed in your work to go to bed. Welcome!

Hi Ben thanks for the welcome. I have been an admirer of your stuff for a while now. It is nice to get a chance to chat with other carvers - not many down here. Have you ever been to Australia?

Very cool carving. Cant wait to see more.
Welcome aboard .

Thanks Marcus. No I haven't been to Australia yet. I would Love to go there some day and hit NZ too. I'm surprized there's not many tiki carvers down under tho. What do most carvers do down there?

Very nice piece Marcus.

You and hewey should throw a tiki party some day. I guarantee you'll get a few TCer's down there.

On 2005-06-01 22:11, tiki beat by marcus thorn wrote:
Thanks for the warm welcome. Sam I May have been under the influence of an ale or two at this art show. I checked out your site -very very cool mate.

So it's the old demon rum! :) Thanks for the kind words, Marcus.

You said click on it and it gets bigger....he, he, he!!!

Matty

On 2005-06-01 18:45, Octane wrote:
tiki looks good, wish the picture was a little bigger. like others have said welcome to the central.

OK i'm a idiot, you can just click on the picture and it gets bigger. Sorry. Any way good job.

[ Edited by: octane on 2005-06-02 09:58 ]

OK if you go to my page two the picture I painted on the Uke is a duplicate of a tattoo that I designed for my arm - on my arm the tiki is carved into a double bass.

[ Edited by: tiki beat by marcus thorn on 2005-06-05 01:13 ]

Hi guys - here are some more pics of my work. The uke was entered into a uke and skate art show at Kingscliff and it is my first painting in 14 years so I was pretty impressed with how it turned out - so much so that I decided to keep it. As you know Ben, carving as a full time "job" is so time consuming that you get very little chance to do stuff for yourself.

really like th uke.

Lookin great Marcus, I love the colors you are using, Nice!

Just a quick note - here is a couple of photos of a carving that I did of Ku - a good friend of mine "Baron Von Weirdo" snapped him up and now has the finished piece in pride of place in his shop down the coast. I will take some pics of him next trip down there. talk again soon guys

[ Edited by: tiki beat by marcus thorn on 2005-06-15 01:12 ]

Cool work, marcus. Better chain that one down if he's outside...

http://www.samgambino.com

Verry sweet l the headdress really does the job and the face has great expression and detail

I like this nose and teeth. The yard behind him looks to be a good way to spend an afternoon.

Very nice work Marcus. What type of wood is that?

Thanks for the great feedback guys - this one was carved out of a good old aussie gum tree. It is a hard wood and is pretty heavy. My tiki hut wasnt quite finished yet in that pic - we have a little luau here every year with fire dancers and uke players it is really a great gig and every year more and more people will go to great lengths to get an invite. I will get some pics of my bar finished and in full luau swing loaded up soon. got to get back to the chisels lots of work to do over the next few months.

ummm, I'm not getting any of these pics! Anyone else not getting them?

On a different computer and I can see! Its a miracle!

Nice stuff dude

Love the KU. That Gum wood looks like it would finish up Spectacular. Do you have a finished pic of it yet?

You didn't happen to carve the mooneyes tiki shift knobs and door locks did you? They look very similar to some of your stuff, and you also said you have done some stuff for Shige (?) (owner of mooneyes).

Hi Hewey - no the mooneye tiki stuff is not mine - I have carved stuff for Shiges personal collection and he has one of my full size tikis in his office in Japan. I am working on some stuff for him that you might see soon.

Finished picture of Ku on Stage - hired for stage setup - Rockabilly bands gig

Mooneye tiki on malibu board - with new owner Shige of Moon Equipment in Japan

This sketch was done by a good mate - Scotty

[ Edited by: tiki beat by marcus thorn on 2005-06-19 00:02 ]

Welcome Marcus....

I see your a Newsledder fan! That shirt's a collectable these days!

Funny, I've got a Mooneyes tiki too.....it just never got to Shige!!!

[ Edited by: tiki beat by marcus thorn on 2005-06-28 20:43 ]

Top tiki is australian native coconut palm (sorry dont know it horticultural name)
Bottom guy is made from Pine.
More pics on the way soon.

[ Edited by: tiki beat by marcus thorn on 2005-06-30 03:26 ]

Killer tikis, marcus. That second one...I dig that the most!

Cool pics dude.

How you associated with Cruzin magazine? They mates? Yo tikis always in the contents page! What about postin ya article from last issue on here - it was good. I been in there too! (not tiki, but).

Really nice stuff Marcus. What kind of palm is the first one? I really like it. What is the second wood, its nice too?

Ben - thanks mate - the top one is australian native coconut palm and the bottom one is pine.

Sam - I dig this style too - this was one of my early pieces - done a few years ago - but I still like him.

Hewey - Cruzin asked me to do an article ages ago and - they kept seeing me at everything either carving or with stuff on display or on stage for bands etc - given my connections with the kustom culture up here and they kept asking so I finally got it together and did it - they also asked if I could give them photos of my stuff (before the article) so they could put them on the contents page and I have got to know them all - good bunch of people and now consider them friends.

[ Edited by: tiki beat by marcus thorn on 2005-06-30 03:00 ]

Pedro- shame about newsledder - I guess being a dad can take up a lot of time and Adams got a lot on his hands these days.
I would like to see your Moon eye tiki - do you have any pics of it?

Pedro- shame about newsledder - I guess being a dad can take up a lot of time and Adams got a lot on his hands these days.
I would like to see your Moon eye tiki - do you have any pics of it?

Pedro- shame about newsledder - I guess being a dad can take up a lot of time and Adams got a lot on his hands these days.
I would like to see your Moon eye tiki - do you have any pics of it?

Woohoo! I am not the only who has managed a triple post :)

I just looked up Pedro's interests:
Hot rods, kustoms, tiki art

Marcus:
tiki carving and hot rods

and me:
Tiki, kustom cars

Must be something in the water down here :)

The Hot Rod driving Antipodean Tiki Mafia?

On 2005-06-30 03:05, tiki beat by marcus thorn wrote:
Pedro- shame about newsledder - I guess being a dad can take up a lot of time and Adams got a lot on his hands these days.
I would like to see your Moon eye tiki - do you have any pics of it?

[ Edited by: PEDDRO on 2005-06-30 17:39 ]

Dunno if you can see the pics...?? I can, but that's no guarantee!

There's more on my website, but they're pretty bad pics:

http://www.kustomink.com.au/tikis.html

The guy that carves them is a TC'er too.

Pedro - that is gavtiki is it not? I stumbled across an old post of his when i was looking for hebel carvings. I emailed him, but got no response yet. Does he still use his hotmail account?

Cool tikis. Cool to see the Aussie contingent on TC too.

On 2005-06-30 07:32, hewey wrote:
I just looked up Pedro's interests:
Hot rods, kustoms, tiki art

Marcus:
tiki carving and hot rods

and me:
Tiki, kustom cars

Must be something in the water down here :)

The Hot Rod driving Antipodean Tiki Mafia?

Probably 'cause the rum in your Mai-Tais swirls the wrong way...

haha

Yeah, its only the birth place of Tiki and Hot Rods as we know it today.

Some of the water must have trickled up here to Michigan.