Tiki, Polynesia
Tiki Carving
In the 50s and 60s Tiki (the Polynesian God) was a fashionable outdoor sculpture for the Palm Springs modern home yard and/or garden.

Made from the Washingtonia palm tree trunk, this gargantuan ornament added a little fun and humor to the streamlined modern architecture of the day.

In the late 1990s the Tiki God made a come back. For the past 12 years it has been part of the hipster lifestyle of Palm Springs.

The Tiki God to the left was made from an image taken in 2004 in Desert Hot Springs. The original photograph was a film negative. I recently scanned it and played around with it in Photoshop.

Just click on it and you'll see how it looks in a variety of frames and on canvas.

I plan on making many more of these from my photographs of different Tikis that I've found in Southern California and Hawaii.

Note the trunk has been turned upside-down so that the roots make perfect hair for the figure. Pretty clever invention.

If you really like the style there are dozens of Tiki-styled accessories and books for your home.

Here are a few: