Tiki Paul: Carving out a name in the Tiki Community

Tiki Paul is a modest man, he started producing works because people asked him to. We learn about how he taught himself, got his start in the business of creating art for Tiki bars, and his connection to his worldwide Tiki family.

Hi there, can you introduce yourself?

I am Paolo Campese (AKA Tiki Paul) and I am a Tiki artist. I live in a small town about an hour from Venice, Italy.

When did you first discover you were artistic?

When I was just a kid. I used to do drawings and especially caricatures of my friends and family, it is something that just came naturally to me.

How did you get interested in the Tiki world?

When I was younger I was really into Rockabilly music and Punk, and I went to many parties where I would find Tiki-inspired decorations in the venues and festivals. This somehow struck a chord with me and I started to dig into the Tiki culture, painting designs. Then I started traveling, and on a trip to the United States in 2013 I was fascinated by some of the sculptures in the Tiki bars in Los Angeles. My friend Gianni Zoppelletto who was living there said, Why don’t you try to make some of these sculptures yourself? As soon as I got back to Italy I got some wood and tools and started carving.

How did you learn the craft?

I am self-taught. I am naturally handy, and I studied books and youtube videos on techniques. It was a lot of trial and error, but I thought—Yeah, I can do this.

Do you remember the first piece you sold?

It was a small piece with a Tiki face that I made up, and I sold it to a guy in Rome that had a Rockabilly festival. The next one was a big one, about a metre and a half tall made up of one large beam of solid wood from a house. I sold that one right away too.

That was your “a-ha” moment?

Yeah, when I realized I could sell these, and at the same time I was getting a lot of satisfaction out of making them, I thought, this could be a real career.

You also make Tiki mugs, was that before or after the carving?

After. About 6 years ago, again, it was people asking me, why don’t you make Tiki mugs, too? So I went to a friend of mine, Elvio Grego who works in Nove, a nearby town known for its ceramics, and he showed me the basics about working in clay. I use his kiln to fire my mugs. They are selling quite well and I try to create new ones in limited series, because there are a lot of collectors out there who want something unique.

Where have you sold your creations?

Almost every Tiki bar in Italy has one of my mugs, and I did a lot of decorations for Rita’s Tiki Room in Milan. I also sell online to collectors from around the world. My partner Valentina also makes Hawaiian-inspired jewelry that fits in with the theme.

What attracted you to the Tiki culture?

I associate it a lot with cartoons, these faces have exaggerated features, and I liked experimenting in three dimensions in my works. There is a certain nostalgia wrapped up in it, like Rockabilly, it evokes another period of time, when things seemed simpler. There is a big element of escapism. In Tiki bars, there are no windows, so you don’t have a sense of time, you are drawn into a world that is created for you: you are transported into a fantasy.

2021-10-28 10_15_37-Paul Campese (@paultikicampese) • Instagram photos and videos.png

2021-10-28 10_16_12-Paul Campese (@paultikicampese) • Instagram photos and videos.png

2021-10-28 10_17_58-Paul Campese (@paultikicampese) • Instagram photos and videos.png

Pre Covid, you and your partner Valentina have taken a Tiki tour around the United States, What are the must-visit bars?

I love the Tonga hut which claims the fame to being the oldest, founded in 1958, in N. Hollywood, as well as one in Palm Springs. Then there is The Reef in Palm Springs, and Caliente Tropics hotel, Tiki Ti always has a line to get in, sometimes you have to wait up to an hour, because it’s a small place. In San Diego, False Idol is really cool. Over in Europe, Trader Vics in Munich is amazing.

You built a Tiki bar in your back yard. Why?

I wanted to have a place that is kind of like a showroom to show potential clients, but most of all it’s for Valentina and me, where we can just chill out and relax at the end of a day. Everything was made by me, from the woven mats on the walls to the totems and decorations, to the lacquered bar, and the framework of the house itself. I like to invite my friends and let them live the experience.

Imagine you have an unlimited budget, what’s your Tiki dream?

I’d like to live near Los Angeles on the coast, and have another place in Hawaii so I could live the south seas experience all year long.

I founded the Facebook group Tiki Italia 4 years ago with Tiki Matt, Lukino Ungawa a DJ who had the first Tiki bar in Italy now closed) called Ungawa! and my pal Nicola Lancerin. Anyone who is Italian can find anything they need to know about the Tiki culture here.

Tiki by the Sea (tikibythesea.com) is a big Tiki festival that takes place in New Jersey, but there was a European edition in Fregene, Italy. Beachbum Berry came out for one of the last meetings there. We are hoping that it will be back again next year.