Las Vegas Weekly

April 13, 2009 · 2:19 PM

Drunken tiki and pin-ups: Frankie’s gets to work on 2010 calendar

By Sarah Feldberg

"Ruby's Dilemma" by Tom "BigToe" Laura

Leaning up against the bar, a giant tiki statue is drooling over a young woman’s shoulder. An eye is literally popping out of his head as he ogles the curves popping out just as graphically of the object of his affection’s tiny red top and ripped low cut blue jeans. She looks terrified, as anyone might with a massive hunk of tribal wood looking drunk and horny over her shoulder.

“It’s actually a really famous painting,” said Frankie’s Tiki Room owner P Moss of the framed tiki painting hanging on the front wall of his dimly lit bar, located just off I-15 on West Charleston Avenue.

Called “Ruby’s Dilemma,” the painting is by Tom Laura, a California-based surfer and artist who goes by BigToe in most circles.

“The dilemma is that she’s got a drunk, slobbering, 2,000-pound tiki making amorous advances,” explained Laura of his title for the colorful painting.

“Or waiting to devour her,” piped up Monica Renee. Renee is Ruby, or at least she was Ruby back when Laura immortalized her in paint. A pin-up model with vintage tattoos, long wavy black hair and a petite curvy frame, Renee used to go by the name Ruby Devore, and she was the sexy inspiration for Laura’s tiki-fied work.

On Saturday, Renee was on hand at Frankie’s Tiki Room for a calendar photo shoot to reenact the bar’s fanciful painting, along with her hulking co-star, a giant slobbering tiki made of heavy Styrofoam carved with a 14-inch fish knife and sanded into position.

“I was looking for a girl that had the vintage tattoos,” Laura said of how he chose Renee for his painting. “She’s sexy as hell, but still has a wholesome, exuberant look.”

That look will be captured once again for Frankie’s Tiki Room’s inaugural calendar, a follow-up to Moss’ 2009 calendar shot at and for his other Vegas venture, Double Down Saloon.

Double Down will also inspire a 2010 calendar, but, Moss explained, the Frankie’s rendition will be “a little more provocative, a little less sleazy. I love sleazy,” he added, “but Double Down and Frankie’s have totally different personalities.”

Double Down’s 2009 shots featured local ladies from the nightlife and music scenes (including Weekly’s own Deanna Rilling) posed in the famous dive. For the Frankie’s calendar that will feature Renee’s reenactment, Moss offered this visualization: “Think of provocatively dressed girls posing around the room.”

The first of those girls is Renee, dressed in light jeans, a red collared shirt tied above the midriff with the sleeves cut off and black patent leather platform pumps with six-inch heels.

“I put [a photo of the painting] as the background on my phone so I could make sure my face has the right expression and my toes are pointed the right way,” Renee said as a makeup artist colored her lips in candy apple red. “Down to the detail of the rips in the jeans we nailed it.”

As Renee took her place on a bar stool in front of photographer Scott Berry’s lights and worked herself into a half-frightened, half-flirtatious pose, Laura marveled at his painting come to life.

“It’s weird,” he said, laughing under his breath. “It’s like full circle.”

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