It’s not often you’ll see a vibrant painting of a tiki-headed surfer shredding a lava flow on display in an art gallery.
But at Diamond Head Gallery the work of Dennis Mathewson is there for all to see, a reflection of the growing popularity of a graphic art style rooted in the anything-goes, hang-loose surf, skateboard and hot rod culture.
Mathewson is one of three artists with Hawaii connections featured in the new book "Surf Graphics" (Korero Books, $45), which explores the aesthetic of this subgenre of the underground "lowbrow" art movement, also known as "outsider art" in the sense of being apart from what’s considered "fine art." In all, works by 30 international artists are highlighted, including Brad Parker of Kona and Tom Thordarson, who has been visiting Hawaii regularly since the age of 6.
The Las Vegas-born Mathewson, who has lived here for 32 years, said he originally thought his tiki- and ocean-themed paintings were going to be a hard sell for the Waikiki gallery.
"The sales staff were these conservative, older women, and here my paintings were filled with skulls and tikis and the like, so I didn’t know if this was going to work," he said.
"I’m 56 now, and I’ve been doing this my whole life since I was 14. I paint what I like. I think the demographic of my fans has grown up with my work. They’re the guys who still ride Harleys and have tattoos, and they home in on my stuff."
He started as a teenager airbrushing silkscreened T-shirts before moving east to do detail work for the late Karl Smith, aka Big Daddy Rat, and his famous Rat’s Hole bike shop in Daytona Beach, Fla.
"I started off more like a commercial artist. I’ve created airbrush stencil, paint and frame lines since then. It’s been quite a journey, to go from T-shirt to automotive to fine art. These are the steps that I always hoped to accomplish, and I’ve been hanging in there for the long run by learning to diversify."
His Honolulu business, Cosmic Airbrush, provides custom motorcycle and automobile painting, and his work can also be seen at Harley-Davidson dealerships here.
Thordarson, who considers Hawaii his second home, is more a scuba diver than a surfer. He has fond small-kid-time memories of his long stays with relatives in Kailua-Kona. "I have an uncle who’s a diver. Spending three months out of the year with my cousins, exploring and being underwater, all of that experience is part of my work," he said.
Like Mathewson, Thordarson is also a commercial artist, with a résumé that includes jobs as director of attraction development for Universal Studios and as a Disney Imagineer.
"My work with Universal started out before I graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. I worked with them doing concept art and sketching for Universal park attractions. So what I do is more than just paint; it’s how to build and create an immersive experience. I only started concentrating on my painting 51⁄2 years ago, and my subject matter tends to be playful," said Thordarson, who signs his paintings as "Thor."
He is now working full time with thinkwell, a top entertainment design company in L.A. One of his projects is production art and design for a "Pirates of the Caribbean" live-action stunt show for Disney’s planned theme park in Shanghai.
"Because it’s ingrained in me by working in the entertainment industry to structure my time and perform under deadline, I have to produce. It’s not like I can’t do anything because I’m not in the mood. I consider any of the fine art work I do on weekends and evenings my fun time. I’m completely motivated by my own ideas and joy of the ocean," he said.
Parker — from Omaha, Neb., via Los Angeles — has lived in Kona since 2006 and designs for Tiki Shark Inc., which produces beach towels and mats and is a licensed manufacturer for the Body Glove brand. Last month he had a solo show at the birthplace of the lowbrow art movement, the La Luz de Jesus Gallery in L.A.
He was in Southern California during the renaissance of tiki bars and exotica music in the area’s underground scene. After a run of doing storyboarding and production illustrations for movie projects, he decided to follow his tiki-fueled dream and get close to the source by moving to Hawaii.
Throw in Parker’s comic-book industry work and love for cartoons and monster movies, and there’s a definite whimsical aesthetic to his colorful paintings, which can be seen at Wyland Kona Oceanfront Gallery and elsewhere.
"The hardest part for me is painting something on canvas, call it art and put it in a gallery. I was told that what I do is unusual for Hawaii. A lot of people said my stuff would never sell — tiki is dead here and tourists won’t understand it," Parker said.
But he has been developing a group of local collectors, although many of his buyers come from places like Canada and the northern part of the mainland, "people who live so far from Hawaii who saw my work either on the Internet or on vacation here."
"While it’s nice to have someone from Spain or Hungary buy my paintings, I find it more validating and powerful that someone in Hawaii gets my work. It’s a bigger compliment to me.
"What I do is what the rest of the world thinks what this mythic Hawaii is. It’s meant to funny and imaginary. It’s not meant to be the ‘real’ Hawaii. I’m not out to purposefully misrepresent Hawaiian culture. Oh my god, I hope no one thinks what I do correlates to the native culture."
Parker said he just started painting before he left L.A. and that the move to Hawaii gave his work an added dimension.
"I was around sunsets every day, the beach, the local flora and fauna — all that was cropping up more prominently in my paintings."
Yet his love for Polynesian-inspired kitsch remains strong.
"I don’t think I’m finished talking about tiki culture just yet," he said.
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On the Net:
» cosmicairbrush.com
» diamondheadgallery.com
» tikishark.com
