Hawaii Seascape and Crazy Tiki artist Trey Surtees, was born in Pensacola, Florida. His father was a very talented artist and had the most influence on the creative endeavors of Trey's life. His mother was also an artist and specialized in floral paintings. Starting out as a caricature, portrait and airbrush artist, he later followed his passion and became a painter of the sea. His passion for surfing and kayaking has inspired Trey to translate to canvas, for others to experience, his love of the ocean and all its power and majesty.
Hawaii Seascape and Crazy Tiki artist Trey Surtees, was born in Pensacola, Florida. His father was a very talented artist and had the most influence on the creative endeavors of Trey's life. His mother was also an artist and specialized in floral paintings. Starting out as a caricature, portrait and airbrush artist, he later followed his passion and became a painter of the sea. His passion for surfing and kayaking has inspired Trey to translate to canvas, for others to experience, his love of the ocean and all its power and majesty.
After deciding to diversify his styles and portfolio, he thought it was time to get back to his roots of cartooning and chose to breathe new life into the Crazy Tiki characters that he created almost 25 years ago for a comic strip concept. That decision has made his Crazy Tiki Art a wildly popular new art form. Color combinations ranging from natural earth tones to vivid translucent colors, are then combined with the humor and personalities of the Crazy Tikis that now occupy that lost island world Trey has created for them. The creativity and humor of his paintings, spark the imagination of the viewer to read into every painting, their own story line. Trey ultimately decided to bring his Crazy Tiki characters life for the enjoyment of others. "The visual description of humor, has the impact of no other art form" says Trey, "You can take artistic license to a whole new and unexplored dimension". Trey has worked as artist in residence at some of the finer resort hotels and also the Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner. In 1975 while painting portraits on this famous cruise ship's third and final New York to Caribbean cruise of the season, the ship was reported lost off of the radar screens for five hours in the Bermuda Triangle. That story was later covered in a 1980's television documentary on the Bermuda Triangle. This may have some bearing on how he comes up with his crazy off the wall humor. You can be the judge of that. Trey has quickly become one of the most versatile seascape, surf, tiki artists in Hawaii. His paintings are in private collections around the world, from the U.S. to Europe, Africa, South America, Asia and Australia.
Like Norman Rockwell, Seuss personally created every rough sketch, preliminary drawing, final line drawing and finished work for each page of every project he illustrated. Despite the technical and budgetary limitations of color printing during the early and mid-twentieth century, Dr. Seuss the artist was meticulous about color selection. He created specially numbered color charts and elaborate color call-outs to precisely accomplish his vision for each book. Saturated reds and blues, for example, were carefully chosen for The Cat in the Hat to attract and maintain the visual attention of a six-year-old audience. By the time Seuss’s book career took off, sharp draftsman skills were evident in drawings. His ability to move a storyline ahead via illustrations filled with tension, movement and color became a hallmark component of his work, and the surreal images that unfolded over six decades became the catalyst for a humorous and inspired learning experience.
Artist Leo Rijn, the inaugural sculptor for the Dr. Seuss Tribute Collection I, was selected to launch this project due to his prized work with some of today’s top talent in the world of film, entertainment and the visual arts (including Tim Burton, Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg). Rijn has been identified as one of today’s brightest sculpting talents because of his ability to breathe life into the written word and successfully transform two-dimensional ideas into three-dimensional works of art. Universal Studios commissioned Leo to develop and oversee the creation of numerous maquette scale models for the Monumental Dr. Seuss Sculptures at Seuss Landing in Orlando, Florida. Leo was instrumental in the art direction for many of the sculpted characters and buildings now on display at this permanent Seuss attraction. His strikingly accurate Seuss works embody a masterful and intuitive Seussian sensibility, establishing him as a leading talent in interpretive sculpting.
Seuss embarked on an ingenious project in the early 1930s as he evolved from two-dimensional artworks to three-dimensional sculptures. What was most unusual for these mixed-media sculptures was the use of real animal parts including beaks, antlers and horns from deceased Forest Park Zoo animals where Seuss’s father was superintendent. Unorthodox Collection of Taxidermy was born in a cramped New York apartment and included a menagerie of inventive creatures with names like the “Two Horned Drouberhannis,” “Andulovian Grackler,” and “Semi-Normal Green-Lidded Fawn.” Shortly after Seuss created this unique collection of artworks, Look Magazine dubbed Seuss “The World’s Most Eminent Authority on Unheard-Of Animals.” To this day, Seuss’s Unorthodox Collection of Taxidermy remains as some of the finest examples of his inventive and multi-dimensional creativity.
Illustrator by day, surrealist by night, Seuss created a body of irrepressible work that redefines this American icon as an iconographic American artist. Yet, the Secret Art often shows a side of the artist that most readers, familiar with him through his classic children’s books, have never seen. This collection, created over a period of more than 60 years, encompasses the entirety of Seuss’s multi-dimensional talent. The artistic golden thread highlighted throughout this collection is apparent in each wildly imaginative and surreal Secret Art image. The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss is an inimitable collection of artworks created at night for his own personal enjoyment. These works were rarely, if ever, exhibited during his lifetime and provide a deeper glimpse into the art and life of this celebrated American Icon.
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