Trader Hics | Canvas Print

A few years back, I visited many old farm towns on the mainland. I couldn’t help wonder what would happen if some homespun farmer out there wanted to fool all his kin into thinking he had been to all sorts of exotic places and knew exactly how to create an “authentic Tiki Bar” in his barn? So I figured he might take all his old farming junk, his colorful imagination and talent for weaving tales about his adventures in Tiki and create this enchanted place!

The Mai Tai’s are made with “genuine” plain label fruit punch and corn liquor! Oh, and they are served up in hand painted “Tiki Mug” milk bottles, garnished with “real” canned pineapple and maraschino cherries straight from the jar! Goes great with a pickle straight from the “Poo Poo” platter! Nothin’ like “Cheese Wup” on white bread and corn on a stick too... and FREE yet!

What great puffer lights can be made with a nice hot water bottle, a couple corks and a hand full of toothpicks! That old mounted trout sure came in handy - just add an old butcher knife and twine and they’ll all believe its a real life “Tropical swordfish from Hawaii”! Strung tin cans form the trunk of one of two “palm trees”, and nothin’ like chicken wire for the netting! We see it on the farmer’s wife in the back too... she makes real hula dancers “pale” in comparison!

Last but not least, meet “Trader Hic” himself... tendin’ to his bar! He is cleanin’ off a milk bottle Tiki Mug for the next anxious customer. Note his hand carved Tiki pendant (“carrot wood” of course!). His authentic "Island Parit” sits patiently in it’s bike inner tube ring perch. NO FEEDIN’, now... it’s on a strict exotic diet (most likely the Poo Poo’s). Finally , catch that “hillbilly outrigger”. This one is a fountain and jacuzzi too! The guy kickin’ back inside is shootin’ us the hillbilly Shaka! Surrounding him are two of the Tiki’s made of stuff found around the farm and creatively crafted.

So folks, if Ya ever make it to the Trader’s parts, Look Him up! Rest assured...you can and a little Tiki in a LOT of unlikely places! Look for more of this series...It’s part of the “Home Spun Tiki Bars” series I plan to continue where you will see the creativity of Tiki bars in basements and backyards all over the states that refuse to be without exotica..and make Tiki out of whatever they can find!

There are a million intricate details in this whimsical Hawaii-inspired art from Tom Thordarson.The fun is in trying to spot them all!