Ticket to Paradise: Escape to the tropics with Tiki tOny.

0
224
Anthony Murphy in his beach shack/workshop.

By Nancy D. Lackey Shaffer | Photos by Chris Mortenson

Tiki culture is not Pacific Islander culture. The societies of Oceania — a geographical area covering over three million square miles between mainland Asia and the Americas and which includes Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia and numerous other islands, archipelagos and sovereign nations — are many, varied and distinct. Hawaiian shirts and scorpion bowls have but the loosest connection to the important and fascinating cultures that inspire them. Tiki is a fanciful facsimile of the South Pacific, deliberately and exuberantly inauthentic.

“It’s a hyperreality,” explained Anthony Murphy. “It’s a fantasy version of the islands.”

Murphy is a former art teacher happily raising his two young daughters (ages 8 and 5) with his wife, Alene Schultz, in a serene space in Camarillo notable for its adventurously decorated Land Rover in the driveway and beautiful, jungle-like landscaping in the backyard (courtesy of gardening enthusiast Schultz). He loves Disneyland and surfing. But among fans of tropical memorabilia and decor, Murphy is lauded as the much-admired artist Tiki tOny.

If you’ve been to a South Seas-inspired bar in California over the last decade or so, there’s a very good chance you’ve seen Murphy’s work. Tiki tOny merchandise — carvings, lamps, paintings and, of course, mugs — grace Hula’s Island Grill in Santa Cruz, Tonga Huts in Palm Springs and Hollywood, Tiki Ko of Bakersfield and The Jungle Bird in Sacramento. That’s just a few, and just on the West Coast. He has supplied restaurants and bars across the U.S. and in Europe (one of his first orders was from a midcentury modern-inspired lounge in Germany), and Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto and Tiki Bar at Walt Disney World in Florida has his creative thumbprints all over it.
Locally, visitors to VenTiki Lounge and Lanai in Downtown Ventura can get a good look at Murphy’s work and aesthetic.

ART MEETS FANTASY Murphy’s playful artistry runs the gamut, from cocktail vessels with character to expressive home decor to lamps, carved skateboards, paintings and more.

Art and baseball

Murphy and Schultz are both Camarillo natives, and high school sweethearts. Schultz recalled that her now-husband was always artistically inclined.

“In middle school, on Friday nights, he and his friends were always drawing,” she said.

Murphy himself described art as a much-needed creative outlet. As a competitive athlete, he played baseball all through high school and college and was on the All-Stars. His talents took him further and farther into the game, which became a source of stress as well as joy.

“Drawing, painting, surfing — it was a great escape,” he recalled.

That escape took a tropical bend around 1994 when Murphy and a friend were checking out a local thrift shop, and found some old Hawaiian shirts.

“At the time, the only people who wore Hawaiian shirts were old retired guys,” Murphy said. “We thought it was hilarious. ‘Look at us! We’re 15 and we’re retired!’

“Record albums were 99 cents…I saw all these old exotica records with cool tropical scenes.”

That initial foray into this tropical fabrication was further bolstered by Schultz’s family. Her father had fought in the Korean War in the U.S. Air Force and spent time in Hawaii. He had a statue from Hawaiian souvenir company Coco Joe’s, which at the time was an inexpensive bauble…and today is probably considered a valuable bit of vintage memorabilia.

Murphy, who by now was a student at Moorpark College, saw that statue and felt his muse kick in. He found a stick in the yard, borrowed a Dremel tool and attempted to replicate it. He enjoyed the process so much that he began carving pendants out of driftwood, which he’d sell when and where he could.

Really, however, it was just something he enjoyed.

“I never thought this would be a thing,” he recalled.

ABOVE BOARD Bryan Renfro takes a stand on a Tiki tOny collectible skateboard.

Respecting the Sacred

After Moorpark College, Murphy and Schultz both went to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo — he studied art while she majored in creative writing. Later, at CSU Northridge, Murphy took a ceramics class as part of his master’s degree for teaching. When he told his professor that he wanted to make a tiki mug, she scoffed at him.

“It wasn’t considered serious in the fine art world,” Murphy said.

His teacher was willing, however, to show him how to cast the mug and make a mold…outside of class hours. With her help, he learned the skills necessary to make intricately carved mugs, and started working out of the Schultz residence (“did it in her parents’ spare bedrom”). His first mug was named Fatutu, and was inspired by a tiki from Fatu Hiva, an island in French Polynesia.
After graduating, Murphy worked as an art teacher at Las Colinas Middle School and Malibu High School. But he wanted to focus more on his own work. He ended up taking a job cleaning pools, which was physically demanding but “mentally freeing,” and left him with time and energy to create in his off hours.

He remained fascinated by Oceania art and culture, and spent a lot of time learning about it. He and Schultz both have a deep and abiding respect for the rich and varied heritage that tiki culture attempts to emulate — problematically, in some cases.

CARVING A NICHE Murphy whittles in his home studio, surrounded by his original creations.

This is a great place to note that elements of tiki culture can be controversial, particularly for those of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) descent. It is very much a Eurocentric concept of an idealized tropical paradise, divorced from its less savory history. John Birdsall addressed this in a 2019 article in the Los Angeles Times (“Tiki bars are built on cultural appropriation and colonial nostalgia. Where’s the reckoning?”, Nov. 27, 2019). The term itself is being reconsidered as well. According to a 2020 article on liquor.com (“Rethinking Tiki: How to Do Tropical Escapism Better,” Caroline Hatchett, March 6, 2020), some are starting to advocate for
replacing the word “tiki” — which means “image” in Eastern Polynesian and represents the first man in Māori mythology — with “tropical escapism.”

Murphy is a longtime student of Māori, Hawaiian, Polynesian and other South Pacific cultures. He can recognize many styles and artists on sight. Which is how he came to appreciate the geography, history and heritage that inspired his particular art form. To this day, he is careful to keep his work in the realm of imagination, homage rather than replication.

“I don’t want to recreate anything sacred,” he explained. “It’s my way of respecting the culture.”

Whether it’s called tiki or tropical escapism, the genre that began in 1933 with the opening of Don’s Beachcomber in Hollywood has been enjoying a revival in recent decades. Tiki Oasis, today one of the largest festivals celebrating all things midcentury modern and tropical, began in 2000. Tiki bars have popped up all over, and cookbooks dedicated to tropical cuisine and libations are more popular than ever.

Murphy and Schultz were inevitably swept up in this hurricane of art and design.

More Than Mugs

Murphy started selling his carving, mugs and other creations under the name Tiki tOny (yes, the odd spelling is deliberate), and his work was a huge hit at festivals and conventions. It wasn’t long before he established a name for himself among collectors, enthusiasts and entrepreneurs riding the tiki culture wave.

Tiki tOny’s merchandise starts with Murphy’s drawings, designs and carvings — which are intricate, difficult to achieve and beautiful. But the casting and incredible colors are achieved by Schultz, who prefers to keep a low profile but is a phenomenal ceramics glazer and an integral part of the Tiki tOny enterprise. According to Murphy, “she was one of the first in the tiki world to separate colors on a mug.” Many multihued finishes, in contrast, rely on layering rather than keeping the colors completely distinct.

Their big break came in 2011, when a Disney “Imagineer” (the term used for those involved with The Walt Disney Company’s R&D division) purchased one of Murphy’s paintings at an art show. It ended up on the wall of Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.
The buyer was Brandon Kleyla, known in retro culture circles as Trader Brandon. The head decorator for Trader Sam’s, he turned to Murphy when it came time to open a similar location at Walt Disney World in Florida.

“He wanted more decor,” Murphy said. “He came to a show with a Disney credit card and bought a bunch of stuff — mugs, carvings, masks, paintings…”

Murphy loved the work, and one success seemed to build on another. In Schultz’s words, “The universe was pushing him towards tiki.”

ADVENTURE ON WHEELS A friend gave Murphy this vintage Land Rover so he could create a vehicle inspired by Indiana Jones and Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise ride.

The Business of Escapism

Tiki tOny has become a hot commodity inside and outside the retro style world. Murphy’s done a ton of commissioned work (a custom-designed bar still sits in his workshop, awaiting pickup), supplied mugs, decor and other products for bars and restaurants and also does logo design.
Tiki tOny merchandise became so popular, in fact, that demand far exceeded supply — particularly for a two-person operation.

Murphy and Schultz continue to operate tikitony.com to market items they create themselves — and which are very limited in quantity, highly collectible and sell out in the blink of an eye. They have also partnered with Tikiland Trading, a marketplace for a wide range of artists, makers and vendors. Expensive and limited edition art pieces are available here, but the site specializes in products that occupy the middle ground between inexpensive and ubiquitous (think
colorful barware available through Amazon or Archie McPhee) and high-end
collectibles with an exorbitant price point.

“I wanted high quality that looked like it was made in the U.S.,” Murphy explained.

Murphy helps curate the products available on the site, which does include imports, and also designs mugs, pins, prints and other products made by hands other than his own. He credited Tikiland with freeing up his time, which no longer has to be spent on orders, shipping, customs, website design and other nuts-and-bolts tasks associated with the business. He comes up with the designs — a process he loves — and Tikiland turns them into tangible objects, and sells them, too.

Living the Life

Thanks to Tikiland, life is more manageable for Murphy and Schultz, but there’s still plenty to do. There’s that gorgeous garden to maintain, and two beautiful children to raise. Murphy flexes his educator muscle by volunteering in his daughters’ classrooms when he can. He’s also playing with the idea of offering classes and workshops at a local community center, if time and opportunity present themselves.

Those are in short supply these days. Murphy is kept busy with orders and commissioned work. He’s got shirts and glassware to make for North Hollywood’s Tonga Hut, carvings for the recently reopened Lucky Tiki in West Hollywood, and a variety of items for both the House of Bamboo and Tiki 999 — both of which will be opening soon in Murphy’s hometown of Camarillo.

Lending a hand is Bryan Renfro, a surfing buddy and retired editor for Disney. He started painting and finishing for Murphy in April.

“He’s taught me a lot,” Renfro said of working with Murphy. “It’s like working with my best friend. He’s one of the nicest guys around.”

What he finds most rewarding, however, is “the end result. When people see this item and their eyes light up…that’s what’s rewarding.”

“I love everything,” Murphy himself said of his work, “from the spark of inspiration to the end, when people see it and want to buy it.

“Alene and I are able to create this world to support our family. Through tiki, we can do everything that we want to do…I can follow my ADD treasure map — and it’s do-able and sellable. I feel very lucky.”

Tiki tOny
tikitony.com

Tikiland Trading Co.
668 North Coast Highway, #1149, Laguna Beach
info@tikilandtrading.com
www.tikilandtrading.com

Tiki tOny will be at the Anaheim Fall Festival and Halloween Parade along Center Street Promenade on Saturday, Oct 26, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information, visit www.anaheimfallfestival.org.