Shag artist Josh Agle closes the first weekend of Modernism Week with a talk on Tiki

There's a store on North Palm Canyon Drive that entices passerby with its large metal sign. Inside, the curious will find a sea of green, orange and purple amid scenes depicting lush, mid-century modern life. Welcome to Shag, one of the hippest places in Palm Springs.

The artist behind this store is Shag, real name: Josh Agle. On Sunday, he hosted A Very Cool Shag Experience, a love letter to all things that inspire him, for Modernism Week 2022.

The event, held at the Annenberg Theater, offered a look into the artist's personal history. During the talk, Agle spoke of how he became an artist, andwhat inspired him to create Shag.

A California native, he moved to Hawaii at the age of six months with his parents and younger brother. There, he found the inspiration for his life's work: the exaggerated tourist maps of the Hawaiian islands he holds dear. Maps in which scale is nonexistent and large graphics abound.

He later designed such a map for Disneyland's 50th birthday. He remembers a water tower dressed to look like a huge pineapple at the Dole canning plant near his home, and the lush green of the foliage outside his family's apartment window.

"My very earliest memory as a child, and I still remember this, is basically the color green. You will see a lot of work of mine influenced by that color," Agle said at the event.

Of course the Tiki statues found all over the Hawaiian Islands also left a huge impression on Agle. His memories of such imagery became the basis for all his art.

Oh, and least we forget the movie "You only Live Twice."

"That was like my entree into the world of adults," he said. "So I thought this is what adults do. This is how they live. James Bond, that is what a grown-up does."

His favorite part of the movie was the villain's lair.

"They have the best architect," he said. "The architecture and interior design in these places is always fantastic. So supervillains also play a big part in my art."

As an artist, Agle has chosen to incorporate the Polynesian influences of his youth with the mid-century modern aesthetic of classic villain's lairs and album covers from the 1950s and 1960s. This style has been coined "Tiki Modern."

The final piece of Agle's puzzle comes from being brought up as a Mormon and ultimately leaving the religion. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints forbids drinking, smoking and premarital sex, all of which he now explores in his art. "Just like seeing the James Bond movie. It was the lure of the forbidden."

After Agle started a band in the 1980s with some friends, he was tasked with designing and executing the band's flyers, and ultimately the cover for the group's first album. The album, Agle said, became the very first manifestation of what would become Shag's style. Through this album cover, he got noticed by other bands who wanted him to make something for them. Record labels began to take notice and started hiring Agle to work with their artists.

After graduating college in 1993, Agle met other Tiki artists. Through them, he got his first art show. Thinking no one would buy the art he loved to make, he painted five canvases that he knew would end up on his apartment walls. These are the first paintings Agle considered Shag paintings. To his surprise, they all sold.

One of these first five paintings sold for $200. Ten years later, the collector who had paid $200 for the effort sold that canvas for $10,000. Shag's name grew from there. Disney has now hired him for several projects as well as Playboy, Coca-Cola and The Pink Panther. In 2002 the Palm Springs Preservation Society approached Shag to do some pieces for a show called "Desert Polynesia," a perfect fit. He started using the architecture found in Palm Springs in his work, and a Palm Springs art staple was born.

A few years later, the idea of his own Palm Springs gallery was floated.

"I don't want to do a Shag gallery," he said. "I want to do a Shag store, because people are afraid to go into a gallery, but no one is afraid to go into a store."

Since then, the store has become a downtown destination. Agle is now working on a Shag House that will be available to tour at Modernism Week 2023.

His own home at the Royal Hawaiian Estates is decorated in the distinctive Shag style. He even designed wallpaper for the house, which his wife calls his own personal "Barbie Dream House."

On Sunday, guests from all over descended upon Agle's store to celebrate Shag's connection to Modernism Week: the signature poster he designs for the event every year.

Attendees Britney Stanley and Lonni Banducci traveled from San Diego and Northern California for the affair. Stanley is an interior designer, and Banducci is in the process of refurbishing her grandfather's home.

"The home is in its original 1960s condition. It has a lot of mid-century [modern] furniture," Banducci said.

When Stanley found out about the event, she said she just had to come.

"I'm a big fan of Shag, plus I live in San Diego where Tiki never dies," she said. "My boyfriend and I just bought a house. We are putting in a Tiki bar and living the lifestyle. The home is all bright colors and tropical bird wallpaper."

Stanley said learning Shag's history and where his influences came from was one of the most fun parts of the event.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Shag fans celebrate Modernism Week with a talk on Tiki