sophista-tiki orignals Dawn Frasier

Dawn, I'm so sorry about Heywood. Congrats on all of the new projects, look forward to seeing them all come to fruition!

Ditto cy re: tie wearing... :)

Time to post some more photos. Wendy

Im not ready to share what Im doing yet. I want several finished pieces done first. Im about 1/2 way there still waiting for some supplies to arrive for assembly.

[ Edited by: sophista-tiki 2015-01-29 08:21 ]

Anticipation is fun. We'll be waiting. Wendy

I can share one of my big projects now. Shirts for Smugglers Cove in SF. contact them for ordering details

Smugglers Cove design by Handford, shirts by me

Very nice!!!

last weekend-
woke up sat morning and dove right into studio work, completely focused and on top of it. Then company= total distraction. Took me the rest of the weekend just to get back in to production mode. so I broke out the paints

I also managed to start a couple of new fabric designs including this one

By the time Monday got here fabric had arrived , someone got mad at me for beating them to an idea.

deadlines loomed, and I was back in the game.

[ Edited by: Sophista-tiki 2015-02-11 08:19 ]

[ Edited by: Sophista-tiki 2015-02-11 13:07 ]

I have some great painting ideas brewing. itching to get back to RUGXOTICA and my jewelry line ( still un named) BUT,,, I'm swamped with shirt orders pouring in from Smugglers Cove. And an apparent boost in interest coming from Palm Springs.
Trying to find my way through some web presence fine tuning, which is really waaAAAaAy beyond my abilities. It would be more productive to beat my head against a rock. But I can't afford to pay someone to do it for me.
anyway heres some pics of the first few Smugglers Cove shirt orders hopefully going out the door tomorrow.

Those SC shirts are stylin...Great to see the nice folks at SC recognize your talent for great design. Great job!

new flavors

( already very popular, if you want a shirt message me)

ahd,,, as seen around town in Palm Springs for Modernism Week

wallpaper

fabric

painting on the left

Someday, Dawn, you'll probably create something I don't completely dig, but you haven't yet. Everything looks beautiful.

I do have the occasional clinker ( unpopped kernel) but I try not to share those.

Those are so impressive. You are one talented lady. I really enjoy your posts. Wendy

On 2015-02-23 16:45, Sophista-tiki wrote:
I do have the occasional clinker ( unpopped kernel) but I try not to share those.

Hmm..... doubtful. The Smugglers' Cove fabric is fantastic, as well as all of the new work. Keep on keepin' on!

As posted above the Smugglers Cove design, which is on their glassware as well, is by Hanford. My designs are hand drawn as opposed to a vector program. I don't know if Hanford still pays attention to TC but Im sure hes happy to know you all like it. You'll notice the similarities to the TC page background design. I tend not to play into the cleche or copy other peoples work. I prefer to push things for something different. The sewing portion of this project is done in a vintage method on my vintage machine ( which is how I make all of my shirts). Martin, Rebecca, Valerie and I really went over ever detail to make sure these shirts come out super cool.

[ Edited by: Sophista-tiki 2015-02-25 12:06 ]

all caught up on sewing. for a few days until more fabric arrives. I spend most of the day fielding messages of outrage about a company that named their gravel art dyi kits - sophisti-kit. when a couple of people kinda pointed out that the name was close to sophista-tiki., they got super pissy and went on the attack. so the fact that I've been using this name for just about FOREVER isn't enough for them to have googled me or anything.
their product is cool but their attitude, not so much.
Just an FYI
they informed FB that no one in the hardcore tikiphile scene has ever even heard of me.

so,,,, how did my work end up in all of these books?

and if you still think I'm some bandwagon jumper only " claiming" to be a tiki artist heres a little story about me.
SOPHISTA-TIKI BIO
I'll start this story in the early 90's. I'd just returned from living on the beach in Fiji with my brain full of more ideas and inspiration than I could accomplish in a lifetime. Faced once again with civilization I spent all of my time making my immediate world as tiki as possible. I rebuilt my first vintage Bus, turned my house into a tiki modern hut , made my own clothes out of thrifted Hawaiian print mumus, screen printing my tapa designs on t -shirts and made my own tiki mug molds. Being in Seattle and not on the internet severely limited my exposure to a bigger tiki audience.. I managed to get solo art exhibits here and there, be featured on Awesome Interiors TV show from LA a couple of times , and participate in the local art car scene with my 64 bus , Jahmbi. A show of my plywood painted tiki cutouts and surfboards in the window of the local art supply store put me in touch with a guy named Otto. He invited me to come and show my pieces at an event in LA called EXOTICON. Some time the following yr or so I was asked to join a small group show in SF for a Dionysus CD /Tiki News release party with two SoCal artists , Bosko and Shag. This was the first group show of the tiki revival scene, none of us sold anything. Fast Forward 25+ yrs... I'm still working on perfecting my tiki modern vision and I still have more ideas than I can complete in a lifetime. The last couple of decades have added a seemingly unrelated array of experiences to my skill set. I've designed many tiki modern interiors and painted several award winning art cars. Worked as a production studio artist for a Seattle company called Party Partners where we made vintage styled party favors for the likes of Martha Stewart Living, Country Living Magazine and R Crumb. Other accomplishments include singularly remodeling 2 MCM houses and attending the Museology program at University of Washington. Through the years I continued to paint, design, sew and build eventually reconnecting with the larger tiki community through Tiki Central. My paintings have been included in Tiki News, Taboo the Art of Tiki, Tiki Art Now 3, Tiki Magazine and most recently Sven Kirtsen's Tiki Pop exhibit in Paris and the companion book by Taschen. I've shown in galleries from Tokyo to Paris, San Diego,Palm Springs, San Francisco, London, Miami, Ft Lauderdale, New York, Chicago, LA Portland and Seattle. I've been included as a contributing artist in Tiki Oasis, Hukilau, Tiki Caliente, Tiki Kon, and Mojave Oasis
Currently I work from my home studio in Seattle on all of my Sophista-tiki Original lines which include: Sophista-tiki fabrics available from Spoonflower, Sophista-tiki Togs, Cocktail Party Handbags, Havaiki Handbags, RUGXOTICA, and Castaway Cravats for the dapper Primitive.. Original watercolors and acrylic paintings are occasionally offered outside of a gallery . Stay tuned for my latest project - RUGXOTICA, hand tufted retro rugs for tiki modern living. Debuting at Modernism Week in Palm Springs 2015.
For the latest works and special offerings follow my Sophista-tiki Fb page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sophista-tiki/35977263071357
Spoonflower designs can be purchased directly from their site
http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/sophista-tiki
Or check out my Tiki Modern aesthetic on Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/sophistatiki/tiki-modern-decor/

and if you still cant figure it out from the PROOF I just provided google me.
why the hell do I still have to even prove anything!

In the meantime a couple of todays sketches for new designs.

Dawn -

I honestly do not see why you feel you have to "defend" anything.

I am not trying to be disrespectful, but please hear me out & try to consider this from outside of the bubble that is tiki.

You do now own the word "Sophista-" or "Sophisti-" for anything vintage/mid-century, etc. that might is somehow or someway cross over or touch tiki in some way. And that's what this is. They are making Gravel Art Kits for a mid-century audience. And a piece of Mid Century includes tiki.

If they had called theirs "Sophisti-tiki" & you were "Sophista-tiki", you would have a point. But tiki is nowhere in the name

& if you google "sophisti-" (the spelling they use), you do not pop-up at all. Yes. Really.

Try - just for a minute - to step out of the tiki circle to envision a fellow artist who wants to make cool gravel art kits to people who enjoy mid century stuff. You think about what designs to make &, yes, with tiki being part of the larger midcentury genre, it would be natural to include a tiki in that. There's also a squirrel, birds, cats & a mermaid. & they want to come up with a cool name for their kits. So they come up with sophisti-kits.

Are you suggesting that they should have searched in the mermaid-enthusiasts, bird-enthusiasts, seahorse-enthusiasts, cat-enthusiasts, tiki-enthusiasts & squirrel-enthusiasts to see if anyone was using "Sophisti-" ? Seriously?? If you step back & consider how much that doesn't make sense, maybe you can appreciate a little of the other person's perspective.

And, not to belabor the point, but you are not the first "sophista-"/"sophisti-" product out there. Not even the first that would be of interest to tiki or mid-century people.

Your work is very nice, Dawn, and I do own some of it.

And these Sophisti-Kits are very nice, too, and I'll own one of the kits, too (just can't decide which I like best). This is not an "either/or" thing. Your art is nice. Their kits are nice. No one was trying to knock-off your art or get people to think it was you. You do understand that, right?

I enjoy supporting TC artists.
And I like to see them supporting each other and other mid-century artists.

I really don't see that there's anything to "defend" here

I can see that you're adding to the confusion of the actual problem by misunderstanding. To clarify I never once claimed to be offended by their name. I did however point out far in advance that there was going to be some confusion, AND sure enough there was. Dealing with the dozens of messages I received yesterday from people about their outrage (NOT MINE) theirs! I don't control what other people do, say ,or think nor am I interested in doing so.
I stayed out of the bitch fest about it completely because I said what I had to say which was- "it sounds similar and there is already some confusion". a truth not an opinion. I name products ALL THE TIME and I do enough research to see if I'm going to pick something thats completely unique not "sounds like" something that already exists. so I actually have a valid point and I could see this coming. why? because I'm not 5

I couldn't care less about DIY gravel craft kits. it has absolutely nothing to do with me.
I am not the one perpetuating the problem. BUT>>> they're the ones who posted publicly on FB that "no one in the tiki scene has ever heard of me" a direct quote. I actually am well within my rights to illustrate exactly who I am and what my history in the tiki scene is.
The fact that you felt it necessary to "correct" me just shows how the issue, that I did not create, is being perpetuated and that some people are making their own negative assumptions about how I personally feel about it.

Like many things that start out as a single issue- NAME SOUNDS SIMILAR- they evolve to a multi-layered problem- bashing me,,,,,, which actually calls for me to say something in my defense.
do you comprehend now?
I think you are confusing sarcasm and mocking with actual anger.

The way this played out on FB wasn't my doing. I'm not an instigator, But I will relentlessly mock some stupidity.

etsy.com/sophistatiki. Everything from my newest line- Castaway Cravats to prints of my Tiki Magazine Cover.

[ Edited by: Sophista-tiki 2015-03-04 10:26 ]

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2015-10-26 09:46 ]

so why is my art page suddenly about someone else product?

It was a question/comment about what you and croe67 just posted on your art page.

I will remove it.

sketches for a bunch of new stuff

a bit of progress yesterday on the watercolor I started a couple of weeks ago
Its called 'Municipal Boat Launch'

I forgot how to add an image in the signature

getting started on the kites today. I'll be using some sophista-tiki gift wraps from my Spoonflower. Even a sophista-tiki logo paper. such a satisfying project!

fresh ones

Oh, like that orange & blue pattern!

On 2015-03-07 08:48, Sophista-tiki wrote:
sketches for a bunch of new stuff

Very nice work!

3 of the 8 designs for my new party favors line.
launching shortly

Its almost officially Sophista-kites, tiki party favors. Heres a sneak peek and 3 of the designs I previewed in the post above.
I still have to get the glamour shots , package, and list them. I've got enough inventory to start shipping orders for room party decor at the upcoming tiki weekender events.

so many more designs coming, with a whole fresh crop of ideas right behind that. I've had this line cued up for almost 15 years.

Dawn,

Great designs for the party decor. I can't wait to see the kites.

Dawn - Your talent is only rivaled by your imagination. These are great. They'll be the best party décor out there. I'll be waiting to hear more when you launch.

Another fine product and design by Sophistatiki

RV

The whole world needs to go tiki. Your designs are so classic unlike those at Party Time. Excellent. Wendy

they're done and listed

sold out of the first batch, next batch available in one week.

progress on whats next

yea I know this pic is upside down, you'll live.

Atomic Grog Blog artist of the week. Gotta share before my week is up.
http://www.slammie.com/atomicgrog/blog/2015/04/25/the-week-in-tiki-april-20-26-2015-rum-fest-invades-miami-an-underwater-easter-island-shag-tackles-twilight-zone/#comment-291778

Congratulation Dawn. You put allot into your art and it holds a special place in the tiki world. You definately have mastered the retro, throwback look that we all know and love. Nice to see you getting more press.

Almost done playing catch up, I swear. Making a fresh batch of party favors including prom souvenirs. 3 day count down to magazine photo shoot in my house, and only 2 custom fabric designs left until I can get back to painting, a couple of group shows coming up and my next solo show in Palm Springs.

Forgot to add that the latest Zentiki lounge podcast gave a big shout out to my new party favors line.
https://zentikilounge.squarespace.com/podcast/330

Today is the day. For the past few weeks I've been prepping my house for a magazine photo shoot.

tomorrow I get to be exhausted.
I wish I could have accomplished twice as many tasks like getting some of the furniture reupholstered and painting a couple more tikis. Just not enough me to go around and do all the things I invent for myself to do. So glad my solo show in Palm Springs was rescheduled so I didt have to try and fit in that too. BUT I get Modernism Week which is what I wanted to begin with.
anyway heres what I've been working on lately

These are just my crappy point and shoot pics. I'm sure a real photographer will make it look swanky

etsy.com/sophistatiki. Everything from my newest line- Castaway Cravats to prints of my Tiki Magazine Cover.

[ Edited by: Sophista-tiki 2015-05-09 06:55 ]

You've made a beautiful home to live in!

a couple of this weeks shirt orders, so far one of a kinds these fabrics have never been used before.

All beautiful tiki-riffic stuff as always Dawn! That last shirt is really incredible! :)

Finally got enough other stuff off my plate to start painting. Pieces for Hukilau first, then I'll move onto a group show in LA and Tiki Kon both in July , then my Tiki Oasis piece.
There will be a special edition of party favors for Tiki Oasis this year.
and I made a super cool fabric for myself from a collage of some of my paintings

also I recently got the right toy for instagram so I'm finally posting there. sophista-tiki

progress I've got to finish these today and get back to prepping for Hukilau

on my desk yesterday, I got bout 1/2 of this stuff done and will be finishing up over the weekend. Still have one more Sophista-tiki Togs to get made before Hukilau.

BUT I do have my print sets packaged and ready to trade for cocktails

etsy.com/sophistatiki. Everything from my newest line- Castaway Cravats to prints of my Tiki Magazine Cover.

[ Edited by: Sophista-tiki 2015-06-04 22:42 ]

[ Edited by: Sophista-tiki 2015-06-04 22:43 ]

new shoes, that is all

no I'm not making these, I just did my old pair for myself cause I cant afford new shoes.