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

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Thanks GROG...

Sharks are beautiful..so sleek....except when you get them wrong... like I did last night...late last night... working on a hammer head shark ...they are SUCH weird shapes...anyways I screwed it up!!! totally! Back to the drawing board... and the canvas...
merry x-mas to you ...and big aloha!
Brado~

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!

HERE'S THE HAMMERHEAD SHARK I SCREWED UP... it just looks goofy, and not right, and well, not what I was seeking...

So, back to the sketch book... to work it out

..till I think it looked a bit more "right". That's what I love most about low brow art: It don't gotta' "be right" it just has to "be right" to ME! "Cartoon" is not a bad word in the low brow / tiki art world.

Better?

aloha!

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2011-12-24 02:27 ]

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!

The day was so beautiful in Kona I had to take a break from the art studio... mild trade winds blew all the vog away so you could see all the way to the top of the volcano.

Toasted Christmas with tropical drinks at the Don the Beachcomber Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Kona Resort, over looking Kona bay. Dig the tiki at the far left.

And watching the Christmas sunset from the beach.... mele kalikimaka!

C

Right is a few lines away from wrong isn't it? Maybe it was the pull from the right with Sarah Palin being in the vicinity that caused the issue. lol

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE
STEP 13: WORKING OUT THE SEA O' SHARKS. NOW I'M THINKING I MIGHT HAVE WORKED IN A FEW OCTOPUSSIES, OR MAYBE SHARK-TOPUSSES?

Hey, I got a mention in the Jan issue of Honolulu Magazine. In a piece called "The Tiki Tribe" where they go throgh the whole Tiki pop culture. They state I create " Lurid paintings"... LURID? Lurid... Hmmmm....Lurid, I think I dig that!

ALOHA!

THOSE LAYERS OF SHARKS ARE INCREDIBLE,BRAD!
close-ups ? just a few would make kinny very happy!

Congrats on the Lurid tag....
live it. love it.
:)

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!

Thanks Kinny - I'll get some close ups soon...
Step 14: Kon Tiki Dream, still working on the sea o' sharks, the further distant waves, the sky... going to make the balsa wood raft all orange / brown tones to stand out from the blue sharks. Still need to make "water" a surface that the raft will be floating on. Beads of water, bubbles...stuff like that....
ALOHA!

T

GREAT work as always, Brad!

And Lurid... love that word... that's how I describe 007 theme songs... and who doesn't LOVE those?!? Embrace your inner LURID!!!!

T

Brad, what a compliment to receive from Honolulu Magazine: Lurid = Sensational = Phenomenal = Exceptional! It is a word often associated with Tiki, and describes the things I like best about it. For example, an excerpt from a Wayne Curtis article in Preservation Magazine...

They had tiki bars—those Polynesian-themed joints marked by blowfish lamps, gape-mouthed totems, and lurid drinks served in ceramic tiki heads or coconut shells.

There that word is, describing those luscious tropical cocktails!

Mahalo for sharing the Kona coast scenery; got to get back there soon. Your art is exceptional, and the layered shark detail is just awesome. BTW, we have some pretty large hammerheads inhabiting our stretch of the Florida coast.

-Tom

B

LURID IS RIGHT!

i love the surreal quality of the shark ocean...amaaaaaaaaazing Brad!!!!

I don't know if my Mom will let me have "Lurid" Art
on my wall?

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!

The Brad Tiki-shark Parker front window room of the The Wyland Kona Ocean Front Gallery, 75-5770 Alii Drive, Kailua-Kona Hawaii 96740, (808) 334-0037
Big Aloha and Mahalo to everyone at the Wyland for supporting my art when many other galleries in Hawaii were not brave enough to show my lurid* Tiki Art.

  • "Lurid": Honolulu Magazine, Jan issue, in a piece called "The Tiki Tribe", quote "Brad Parker creates Lurid paintings that pull in influences from Tiki, Comics, and Rock."

    Step 15 - "Kon-Tiki Dream", still working out the raft & tiki

    Close up of the sharks.
    Hmmmm. It's starting to feel to me as if this were an illustration for the book "Kon-Tiki" by Thor Heyerdahl, if he were sharing the chore of writing with H. P. Lovecraft and had the goal of submitting this work to "Weird Tales" magazine for publication

.

That is looking quite beautiful Brad! Those sharks in back are adding such a nice, new level of surrealism!

TRIP OUT!
Lookin so Splendiferous!
Good call on un-goofying the hammerhead....looks so menacing now!
Such a great multi-layered piece!
You are an Inspiration to us all,Brad!

The Tiki Tribe - Honolulu Magazine - January 2012 - Hawaii
http://www.honolulumagazine.com
With mugs, statues, songs and fashion, these kamaaina are carrying the kitschy, tacky, tiki torch.

Honolulu Hawaii - Restaurants, Real Estate, Shopping - Honolulu Magazine
http://www.honolulumagazine.com
Honolulu Magazine brings readers the very best of what Hawaii and Honolulu have to offer, covering people, culture, arts, politics, issues, restaurants, events, entertainment, shopping, real estate, neighborhoods and more.

‎"Brad Parker creates lurid paintings that pull in influences from tiki, comics and rock." Ya' know what? I've been waiting my whole career for someone to define my art as "LURID"! I dig it, baby! Big Aloha & Mahalo DAVID THOMPSON and Honolulu Magazine!

Aloha Tiki Tribe!

Yes. So, just like in the H. P. Lovecraft story "The Call of Cthulhu" a strangely over sensitive artist Henery Wilcox (or in my dream, me) has a strange dream about the south pacific, But, I was also reading Thor Heyerdahl's amazing epic adventure "Kon Tiki" . So, the two books got mixed up in my sleep addled brain and this turned out to be more like "The Call of Kon-Tiki"! Or maybe "The LAST Call of Cthulhu!"


lurid detail as requested by my tiki tribe blood art brother Ken Little Lost Tiki Ruzic.

"Ph-nglui Mglw'nafh Cthulhhu R'lyheh wagh'nagl fhtagan" or as translated from the "Book of Tiki" by the mad Swede Sven A. Kirsten :"In his basement Tiki-Bar at R'yeh drunk Cthulhu slurps a mai-tai"


"Cthulhu fhatagn, Cthulhu fhtagn."


Brad (Tiki Shark) Parker

[email protected]
http://www.tikishark.com
http://www.wylandbigisland.com/
http://www.facebook.com/bradtikisharkparker
http://www.cocktailnation.net

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2012-01-21 23:08 ]

you rock...
DAGON-it!

SO Awesome ! So many Sharks!
Always love the progress pics!!

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!

Step 17: Tiny Bubbles... and lots of Sharks....

It came to me last night the sharks have jewel like eyes. Well my internal Art-o-meter is finally pointing towards the "Pau". Now just the dramatic sky and we'll see.

LLT and Tiki Duddy - big love to you my brothers for hanging in there for the long haul on this strange dream piece!

ALOHA!

Aloha Tiki Tribe!

Step 18: I think it's done!

Kon Tiki Dream
Acrylic on Canvas
24" x 30"

Here's a closer look see at the roiling waters besetting the raft...

And a closer look at our hero "Kon Tiki" as he steadfastly sails his balsa raft across the mighty Pacific.

Big Mahalo for watching this one come together... it was quite a trip.
ALOHA!

Crazy, Insane, Great! Brad.

Great work Brad! Congrats!

Stunning. There's not a molecule of wasted space on that canvas.

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!
Thanks guys!... now....


.. back to step 1...

T

lurid

Very vivid in color, esp. so as to create an unpleasantly harsh or unnatural effect: "lurid food colorings".

Presented in vividly shocking or sensational terms, esp. giving explicit details of crimes or sexual matters.

Synonyms: ghastly - macabre - gruesome

I never realized "lurid" was so lurid.

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!

HOWZIT Brah! Tikifool! Been awhile! Good to hear from you way over there on the far coast!
Yeah, Tiki fool! "Lurid" ! Wow, I think I've been waiting my whole career to have someone in the press claim my work was "Lurid"!

Aloha!

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!

So, next painting idea. A play off the vintage "Hula Girl on Waikiki Beach" image you see here so much. It's a vintage illo from the 40's.
My version has a Godzilla like battle going on behind here as a giant Tiki defends the island from a sea monster.

Here's a rough. You can see Diamond head beneath the Tiki God.

Here's a 40's take on the hula girl w uke.

Here's a more 50's vacation photo pose for the hula girl... which might be funnier.
Still working it out....

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!

Meanwhile... over on a commissioned piece right now named "Zombie-Tiki-Girl" we have this sketch:

What-do-ya-think?
Still working it out... but I like the mood.

Why pushing ahead on so many pieces? What, am I trying to be LLT? Well, I got this show coming up in July. And I gotta fill the wall space! Tiki time it ticking away! Fer details go to this link:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=41871&forum=17&vpost=623287

ALOHA!


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

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2012-02-03 20:03 ]

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!

OH.... I got a brand spanking new Boogie board from Body Glove ... this will make a very interesting one-of-a-kind canvas to paint on!

Might do "ghost tiki" painted on it... still thinking...

On 2012-02-03 18:46, Tiki Shark Art wrote:
ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!

So, next painting idea. A play off the vintage "Hula Girl on Waikiki Beach" image you see here so much. It's a vintage illo from the 40's.
My version has a Godzilla like battle going on behind here as a giant Tiki defends the island from a sea monster.

Godzilla(ish) versus a giant Tiki plus a hula girl? Genius? No. Super-Genius. All it's missing is a few sunburned tourists taking snapshots and it's startlingly close to something I could imagine actually happening.

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!
Professor G - Thank you so much for the kind words. Really, I think I needed to hear that. Sometimes these ideas flow out of my head and onto the canvas in a late night session, and the next morning in the light of day I squint at them and wonder "What the...?" No one's going to like that! This is a step too far from the tiki main stream.

But, I guess I'm not mainstream anyways, so I have to go in the direction my inner art-gyro spins.
Actually, this idea has been incubating in me since I was a nine year old kid - sitting through movie matinees of "Destroy All Monsters" and "Godzilla Vs the Thing"... hope I can do it justice.

Here's step 02, getting the image roughed on the canvas...

Now I'm working on a few things at once- (just like my hero LLT)
Here's the next phase of "Zombie-Tiki-Girl"

Step 02 - getting composition roughed out on canvas.

All for now...

Don't be mainstream, Shark: be . . . lurid.

Godzilla VS: Tiki Megazon= AWESOME.

W

These two are going to be awesome

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS!!!!
Yesssss!
Holy Smokes Brad!
the Call of KonTiki is Hyper-Super-Real!
Awe-inspiring!
and you just shoot right out the gate with two more pieces!
I'm with you on that zombie girl vibe....
fudge boy! you makes good art!
See you in a few days!
i alerted the Toe and the Horne...
:)

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!
Whew! Just got back on da' island after a week in So Cal promoting my up coming show at La Luz de Jesus gallery. My agent/ partner-in-art booked almost every hour as we did a whirl wind tour of LA, Palm Springs and San Diego. I missed one hook up - I missed seeing LLT - Ken Ruzic! So sorry my tiki brother. That was the day we re-discovered LA freeway traffic! Sheesh! Hope you to see you on the next time I hit the mainland. There's nothing like LLT's art studio! Such a swank art pad.
One of the places I did get to, well, the first place we went was to the Gallery- a meeting with the curator to let them OK the things I want to do in the show. I was a bit worried, but Matt Kennedy (curator) and Billy Shire (owner) were cool with everything! They are great folks to work with.

Big Aloha, mahalo and thanks to Wacko!

Aloha Tiki Tribe!
So, been working on "Zombie Tiki Girl" - it's been tough getting it roughed out.

..here's the next step... her face looks better and working in the tiki....next placing back in the palm trees and back Ground.

Lots more to go on this one!
ALOHA~

Looking tiki-riffic Brad! What size is this new painting? Maybe its the photos, but it doesn't look very big compared to some of your other pieces?

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!
tigertail777 - this one is actually a little bigger than I usually work. It's a commissioned piece and the canvas was special made to fit the spot on the wall where the art patron wants it to go. it is...24" x 36".
It was a bit out of control at first, I got really intimidated by it,... but kept working at it till I got a better idea of where it's going... I hope...
Step 5- putting the palm trees back in...

Palm tree study.

More palm trees... looking for that perfect palm tree shape...

Heres where it's at now. Still a LONG way to go, but I have an idea how to paint the sun set... and I think some major exotic looking orchids in the for ground...

more laters!

you make the purdiest palm trees Brad! all live and groping outward for sunlight....or a victim!
This is looking so fantastical Brad!
You are in the ZONE!!!
Thanks for sharing your sketches
you're a true Master,my friend!

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!
little lost tiki-thanks! It was a while till I really understood that I didn't need to paint "real" palm trees, but palm trees that were "real" to my "Hawaiiana-Tiki world". Now, they are much more fun to paint, and draw.
So... I was on my "2012 Brad Tiki Shark Parker Promo Tour" talking to La Luz de Jesus Gallery for my July show, and meeting lots of nice folks who've collected my art, but who I never got to meet in person before - we tooled around LA, Palm Springs and San Diego. One of the last stops in San Diego was a real treat.
Abbas , my art agent / partner, and I stopped in to visit art collector, tiki & hot rod expert Rob and his wonderful family...

... and his AWESOME restored Ford 53 Custom line hot rod!

Rob's a great guy, has a house full of Tikis and tiki art (dig the gear shift) ...

Cruising around So Cal in a classic Hot Rod! Nothing quite like it.
Oh, work work work - of course it's all research and Development for new art work ya ' know.

ALOHA!

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!
Step 6 - I painted in a big ol' cartoon moon in the evening sky, added in a few twinkling stars... I'm still working out if I should put in clouds, then on to the tiki lounge... the palm trees, the tiki, the girl, the flowers in the foreground.... oh boy, I gotta long way to go!

Thanks for watching...

The moon, the palms, that A-frame! Everything is SO Brad Parker! Awesome!

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!
Step 7 - putting in clouds, or the milky way, or maybe just depth to the sky. I hope to smooth it out a bit more, then on to the palm trees (again) and the Tiki Hut - which the art patron who is plunking down the cold hard coconut$ for this piece requested. So the man wants a Trader Vics, the man gets a Trader Vics!

ALOHA!

Very niiiice

This one has such a great flow, Shark. My eyes keep moving in a circle from one amazing-looking thing to the next amazing-looking thing. Stunning.

T

Brad,
I've been away for a bit and look at all the "lurid" excitement and beauty you are churning out!

Gotta say I love the way your dream-inspired shark piece came out...
I'm especially drawn to the sharks in the cresting waves in the background... Love the color play back there...
And the overall detail is fantastic.

Enjoying a peek into the process of your current paintings...
Zombie girl has killer eyes tht sort of suck you into the piece...
Can't wait to see the beach battle for the bikini-clad beauty come to life...
And then you tease us with the bodyboard...!

Great stuff, as always!

Peace.

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!

hang10tiki- Thanks!
Professor G - That's great to hear. The composition is always tricky, but you've eye balling approval is all I needed to hear! Thanks!
TikiDaye - "Kon-Tiki Dream" it's a challenging image to be sure... no pretty flowers, just lots and lots of sharks! Some folks are a bit over whelmed by it in person, but it was this dream image that was burning in my head... and I just HAD to get to out and onto the canvas. So far, for the show in July at "La Luz De Jesus Gallery" it's the only finished original that has not pre-sold. It's a step into the dark side, but It's gonna make a really great vintage comic over to "Tales From The Tiki Lounge!"!

STEP -8

Finishing up the sky, working out the palms, and next, onto the cool -fun part of the TIKI BAR!


"Monsters on Vacation"
This unique giclee just sold. It's a #1 of 1 - an artist's proof of the "Monsters on Vacation" on canvas. (they are usually offered for sale on heavy paper). But an experiment with the printer created a beautiful one of a kind art print, and it sold to a collector. Sorry, it never even made it to FB or "Tiki Central" for a public offering. It was nabbed up by someone who keeps close tabs with Abbas (my art-agent / partner).
Wanna keep posted on any special offerings that come up like this one? e-mail Abbas, [email protected], and ask to be put on a list of folks who'd be interested at first dibs on special prints and such. While these are not Gallery prices, they are not freebies. Be ready to pluck down a few coconut$, but you'll get your pick of swank one-of-a kinds and such.

ALOHA!
Brad~

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