Your life should be filled with interests and hobbies that change constantly!
I actually met Jim along time ago back in 2004 and I didn’t realize it…
He was a drummer (still is) and I was playing guitar in a rock band with one of his old band mates. My band practiced at Jim’s studio and I’d run into Jim every once and a while.
Well… That band only lasted a year or two and life goes on and I wouldn’t discover tiki for another couple years.
Fast forward to now… I ran into Jim down at the Devi’s Reef. He was there to deliver a new and huge tiki that he just carved for the bar.
Jim’s work was amazing and I knew I had to do a post on him.
The funny thing is…I didn’t realize it was the same guy that I met back in 2004!
And I know I don’t look like anything like I did back then so he didn’t recognize me either! It can be a small world sometimes!
Jim Kruize is very talented drummer and tiki carver. Here’s what he has to say…
Jim- 5 years ago I knew very little about the The Book of Tiki or the Tiki lifestyle; I knew only of an art form I had loved since I was a kid. Being a Tacoma native I’ve grown up seeing the local carvings and appreciating faces carved right into a stump or pole. There are some great apartment and sign tikis that I really liked. (FYI-Bob Anderson and I are working on a Doc-u-short about them) I even had a neighbor who carved a couple tikis, one of them I acquired and still have.
Back in the nineties I played in a surf band called “Plank” and created a 6ft Moai complete with fog shooting nostrils for the act. Then while playing a five-night gig in Maui in 2006 with another band (the Sea City dolls) I rediscovered my interest in Tikis and Hawaiian culture and started seriously carving.
Since then I’ve been researching and finding many aspects of “Tiki” that I never knew. These days creating new tiki statues with a distinctive traditional style for all my fellow Tiki peeps is my goal.
My favorite drink of course is whatever Jason Alexander of Tacoma’s Devil’s Reef recommends…
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