Jun 16
Tall wooden figures with powerful faces stand beside a reconstructed temple at Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau on the island of Hawaiʻi. Their eyes stare outward, their mouths form dramatic expressions, and their carved bodies seem completely at home against the dark lava rock and blue Pacific. Visitors sometimes look at these figures and call them “tiki …
Sep 04
Tiki art did not emerge from one studio, one artist, or one clearly defined school. It grew inside restaurants, hotels, theme parks, roadside attractions, home bars, ceramics workshops, sign shops, advertising departments, and backyard carving sheds. Some artists worked with chainsaws and massive logs. Others painted cocktail parties populated by sharply dressed midcentury figures. Some …
