The call from a police officer came at about 2:30 a.m. on Jan. 8, jarring Escondido resident Bosko Hrnjak awake.
“It was funny because she wouldn’t tell me what she’s calling about because she couldn’t pronounce my name,” Hrnjak said. “I said, ‘Don’t worry about. What’s going on?’”
Then he heard a sound outside he at first thought was a Santa Ana wind. In his groggy state, he also thought it might have been a vacuum cleaner.
“And then it dawned on me,” he said. “The noise that I was hearing was the flood.”
A city pipe had burst up the hill from his rural 3.5-acre property. Outside, water, mud and debris was pounding against his home.
He had heard it before, almost three years ago to the day, when a city pipe broke in the same location. This flood would be even worse.
Examining the damage over the past few months, Hrnjak estimates he’s lost at least $160,000 in artwork, including vintage collectibles and $60,000 in his original work. He also lost power tools and molds he uses to make original tiki mugs that sell for between $65 and $375 on his online store, TikiBosko.com. Hand-carved tiki poles go for more than $1,000.
A renowned tiki artist, Hrnjak is credited with helping spark renewed interest in the style and was the subject of the 2020 documentary, “Bosko and the Rebirth of Tiki.”
While mostly known for his tiki mugs, carvings and poles, he also is a photographer and abstract artist whose work was displayed in an exhibit in Los Angeles at HelMel Studios, owned by the late actor Val Kilmer, who held a private reception for Hrnjak and gave him a shout-out in his autobiography.
Hrnjak also has been commissioned to create original artwork for tiki bars around the country, including at False Idol and the Grass Skirt in San Diego. There was even a drink named after him at the Gaslamp District restaurant Mister Tiki, which closed in 2020.
These days, much of his work has been put on hold as he’s been sidelined to do clean-up and rebuilding.
About two months after the January pipe break, Hrnjak said he noticed another leak in the same pipe up the hill and called city workers for another repair. Down the hill, a construction crew working on a new housing development cracked another aging water pipe.
“Every day was something, just some insane thing happening,” he said. “I go to the lumberyard and the guys in the forklifts stop and come running when they see me because they know it’s going to be some nutty, funny, crazy story.”
Much of his largest pieces of artwork were spared, including a massive wind-chime made from old water heaters and other metal tanks, reflecting his ion for repurposing material to create found art.
He salvaged a piece of the broken pipe from down the hill and plans to make a piece called “Nightmare,” named after what one of the city workers called it.
Other work that constitutes his livelihood has been put on hold, along with at least one trip to an event where he planned to be a vendor.
“I was getting ready to go to Modernism Week (in Palm Springs),” he said. “That fell through. I was going to update my portfolio and go shop that around and try to meet people there with my paintings and things.”
Hrnjak said he submitted a claim to the city and heard back this week with their latest offer.
“I made an offer,” he said. “They rejected it. They made a counter-offer, and I rejected it because it was way too low and was not close to covering all the damages.”
He’s not sure what his next step will be in the claim process.
Among the work that he’s lost was about 40 or so molded heads of John F. Kennedy. Hrnjak said he had been working with someone for years to make a connection with a Hollywood personality, which could have led to a lucrative commission that now may be lost.
Besides the loss of tools and original artwork, Hrnjak is heartbroken at seeing the water damage to such prized possessions as five tall tiki poles that once adorned the Tahitian Village Motor Hotel in Downey, which had hosted celebrities and Apollo astronauts in the 1960s.
“I was trying to explain to the insurance guy, this is a piece of American history,” he said.
It could have been worse. About 50 original paintings were due to be moved into his workshop that flooded, but were not delivered.
But many other things were lost, including 13 one-of-a-kind molds for ceramics. He hasn’t fired up a kiln to make a tiki mug in three months, but recently just finished his first pole since the flood.
“It completely throws your life into this chaotic state,” he said. “I’m not developing new art. I’m not functioning like I used to.”
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