Aloha! I just returned from a wonderful week long vacation on the Big Island of Hawaii. Most of my time was spent exploring the rugged lava coastline, swimming in warm ocean currents, and relaxing on beaches as tropical trade winds careened me to sleep. After seeing a few tikis on the island and learning about ancient Hawaiian archaeology, I began to wonder if the Hawaiians had any “monsters” in their local lore. I am aware they had many gods such as Pele goddess of fire, but wondered if there were darker more evil things that they feared. I realized I could quickly find the answer in Google, but promised myself I would try to stay disconnected from technology as much as possible while on vacation. So it remained a fun mystery to me. One day while I was browsing through some local artwork in downtown Kona, I came across this tiki art!

It was perfect! This might not be traditional at all, but I loved seeing four classic monsters totally getting their Hawaiian tiki groove on! The artist is Brad Parker and apparently he is a renowned local Hawaiian tiki artist. The color is just so nice, and totally appropriate for Hawaii. Seeing these four guys totally satisfied my monster cravings while in Hawaii. If you’d like to check out his artwork, visit his website www.tikishark.com.