California Road Trip: Art Jam at Ken Ruzic's Studio

I’m back from an incredible adventure along the California coast. Arriving on Halloween, I started in LA, dipped down to San Diego for Tiki Magazine’s “Tiki Island at the Bali Hai” art show and then cruised up to the Bay Area for the Tiki Central Tiki Crawl with all sorts of memorable pit stops along the way. Most of the time, travel buddies Tiki Racer (who'd flown over from England with me) and Chongolio (who’d flown in from Kauai) were by my side. In retrospect, the whole trip seems very Wizard of Oz, with fascinating characters, new and old friends making appearances and plenty of lessons learned. However, when it came time to fly back, I was clicking my heels wishing I could stay just a little bit longer.


As mentioned in my last post, next on our road trippin' agenda was the Orange County studio of Mr Prolific himself, Ken Ruzic (aka Little Lost Tiki on Tiki Central). Rather than reinvent the spiel, allow me to point you in the direction of a Barefoot Bloggin' post about the day by eye-witness Chongolio:

Takin' it easy, crusin' the coast and hangin' out
by Chongolio
Barefoot Bloggin'
Wednesday, November 07, 2007

We ... charged down to Little Lost Tiki's art studio for an art jam/ Tiki Frat party. LLT hooked Tiki Racer and I up with art supplies and technique tips. We all got creative while Chris snapped some pics. A bit later Squid had stopped by and so did Big Tiki Dude and Jonpaul with some rum and snacks. It wasn't long before we were all laughin' and havin' a good ol time drinkin', creatin' art and makin' up names for Jon Paul to use as a handle on Tiki Central, most of which should not be repeated.

Click here for complete post.

Ken:

Chongolio:

Tiki Racer:

Be sure to check out all my California Road Trip posts and don't be surprised if Ken and his art make another appearance some time soon.

Photography by Chris Osburn © 2007