There Is A LIght That Never Goes Out

June 10, 2010 8:22 AM

A firm tied to Thomas Kinkade (previously, previously), the best-selling franchise artist and "Painter Of Light", has filed for bankruptcy
posted by The Whelk (99 comments total)

Don't sweat it Tom. Vincent van Gogh died penniless, too.
posted by Mayor Curley at 8:25 AM on June 10, 2010 [7 favorites]

Sic semper inanis.
posted by The White Hat at 8:26 AM on June 10, 2010 [14 favorites]

So making the art version of a faux-collectable, like Beaney Babies or Cabbage Ptach Kids, hasn't turned out to be a good long-term investment. Go figure.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:26 AM on June 10, 2010

From the last article, it seems the faux-collectable art wasn't the problem. It was the lawsuit based on faux-Christian faith, specifically transactions made with the belief that Kincade was a good Christian guy. The article didn't get into the lawsuit, but the Kincade Co lost 3 million.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:32 AM on June 10, 2010

I want to have a more intelligent response, but really all I can say is "Good."
posted by COBRA! at 8:35 AM on June 10, 2010 [2 favorites]

It's time for another bailout, people! Do you really think our nation, let alone the world, get keep going without masterworks like this, or this, and especially this?

I mean, sure, we'll survive, but will it really be living?
posted by Panjandrum at 8:36 AM on June 10, 2010 [4 favorites]

Well, this is unfortunate, but as you look at Bambi cresting the ridge of his domain, you too will feel empowered to live your best life and to count on a season of new beginnings, even when the challenges of life confront you. Truly for Bambi, and for us, life goes on.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:38 AM on June 10, 2010 [3 favorites]

From a 2002 article linked within one of the above links:

"If my work became unpopular tomorrow, I'd receive that message," Kinkade says. "And because I'm a servant of art, I'd say to our culture, 'Culture, how can I reflect who this nation is and what it needs?' And then I'd go deliver it."
posted by hippybear at 8:39 AM on June 10, 2010

He could always try to revive his career by going on Bravo TV's fine art reality show, Work of Art.
posted by Windigo at 8:41 AM on June 10, 2010

While working on a crossword puzzle in the morning paper, I came across the following hint: "Thomas Kinkade paints with these." The answer was "oils" and my lunch break was ruined.

(Also: Thomas Kinkade's Experimental Period)
posted by griphus at 8:44 AM on June 10, 2010

Fact I learned from working at a public library: Kinkade has also "co-authored" a series of successful novels that are set inside his paintings. There are novels for kids and novels for adults. Welcome to the town of Cape Light, described by Laura Miller as "Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon if everyone's blood were removed and replaced with Karo syrup."
posted by cirripede at 8:44 AM on June 10, 2010 [7 favorites]

I was curious about the 2003 case mentioned, so I looked up an article about it.

In its February 2006 decision, the arbitration panel said Kinkade and other company officials used terms like "partner," "trust," "Christian" and "God" to create "a certain religious environment designed to instill a special relationship of trust" with the couple.

What the company didn't tell them, said their attorney, was that they would have to sell Kinkade's works at minimum retail prices while the artist undercut them with discount sales, some of which he made himself on cable television.
posted by echo target at 8:44 AM on June 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

I have to say, he (or whatever underpaid artist is doing the actual work in his studio) really is the perfect artist to be doing Disney paintings. I'm genuinely quite impressed by the match of style to subject.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:47 AM on June 10, 2010

Wow, that Bambi painting The Card Cheat linked to above is amazing (in a really sick kind of way). It reminds me of a Jack Kirby Avengers cover with 6 superheroes and a bunch a supervillians attacking and exploding planets and huge plasma ray-gun cannon things and you just can't wrap your mind around everything that is going on and your head almost explodes from sheer joy and sensory overload.

Except the above-described Jack Kirby cover would be great, and the Kinkade Bambi painting sucks ass.
posted by marxchivist at 8:50 AM on June 10, 2010 [3 favorites]

So Kinkade was selling his atrocious tripe to morons by coating it in a veneer of God and country? And it didn't all work out for this bullshit "artiste"? Maybe there is a God after all.
posted by dbiedny at 8:51 AM on June 10, 2010

While working on a crossword puzzle in the morning paper, I came across the following hint: "Thomas Kinkade paints with these." The answer was "oils" and my lunch break was ruined.

I guess "oversentimentalization and tweeness" wouldn't fit?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:53 AM on June 10, 2010 [3 favorites]

I guess "oversentimentalization and tweeness" wouldn't fit?

No better than "the blood of the lamb," no.
posted by griphus at 8:54 AM on June 10, 2010 [3 favorites]

Sounds like someone needs a little happy tree!
posted by tommasz at 8:55 AM on June 10, 2010 [7 favorites]

I wonder if he gets depressed and chops off an ear if the wound would bleed or just emit a beam of light.
posted by Frank Grimes at 8:57 AM on June 10, 2010 [6 favorites]

.
posted by grouse at 8:57 AM on June 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

Sounds like someone needs a little happy tree!

Hey man. Don't be dissing Bob Ross.
posted by emjaybee at 8:58 AM on June 10, 2010 [2 favorites]

ahem.
Link to full 2008 LA times article here.
posted by nj_subgenius at 9:02 AM on June 10, 2010

...er, 2006. sorry
posted by nj_subgenius at 9:04 AM on June 10, 2010

Culture, how can I reflect who this nation is and what it needs?

HARDCORE TATERS.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:04 AM on June 10, 2010 [2 favorites]

The Card Cheat: "Well, this is unfortunate, but as you look at Bambi cresting the ridge of his domain, you too will feel empowered to live your best life and to count on a season of new beginnings, even when the challenges of life confront you. Truly for Bambi, and for us, life goes on."

Needs moar Godzilla.
posted by octothorpe at 9:05 AM on June 10, 2010

It's so wonderful when life looks exactly like an Onion parody.
posted by cccorlew at 9:06 AM on June 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

Wow, so apparently someone did go broke underestimating the intelligence of the plain people after all.
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:06 AM on June 10, 2010 [2 favorites]

There Is A LIght That Never Goes Out

Over at the Frankenstein place?
posted by Parasite Unseen at 9:08 AM on June 10, 2010 [14 favorites]

I would just like to point out that, as of right now, this is my new desktop image.

Everyone in my office is an evangelical. I'm trying to decide what the precise way to spin this desktop will be.

Whatever I decide, I'm excited.
posted by jefficator at 9:09 AM on June 10, 2010

marilyn wept.
posted by honest knave at 9:11 AM on June 10, 2010

Wait, doesn't Kinkade stand to make bucketloads of money with his textbook for Texas?
posted by Runes at 9:14 AM on June 10, 2010

When I learned that he is called the 'painter of light' because he paints the highlights on posters of his paintings then sells them for gross amounts, I thought that was pretty funny. But when I found out he lived in my home town, not so much - I had to move away.
posted by thetruthisjustalie at 9:16 AM on June 10, 2010

For some reason I just assumed that Thomas Kinkade wasn't a real person, but I clicked on his website and there he was, cop moustache and everything. Somehow I find this realisation even more depressing than his work.
posted by ob at 9:17 AM on June 10, 2010

This is what happens when artists dabble in real estate, cf the decrepit finances and failing condozation of Schnabel's New York property.
posted by PinkMoose at 9:20 AM on June 10, 2010

There Is A LIght That Never Goes Out

Over at the Frankenstein place?

Yeah, file that under "scenes we're grateful Kinkade has never painted."
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:20 AM on June 10, 2010

I don't mind the idea of Thomas Kinkade. He makes stuff that lots of people like that happens to be in the visual arts. With music even snobs are pretty tolerant about the sugary nothings with mass market appeal but since art hasn't really gone the whole hog with mechanical reproduction we still have this sort of supernatural notion that the object contains some power by virtue of it being imbued by its creator with something of itself. That art is for the few people capable of appreciating it.

Whatever. If you like photos of babies dressed like vegetables or paintings of cottages in the mountains or day glow dolphins on your trapper keeper or black velvet Elvises welcome to the table. Me I don't like it but I'm not going to pretend it's a moral question. It's fashion. When Andy Warhol mass produced art he was aiming at the cognoscenti, that I guess made it more ok because they were in on the joke if there was one. But really I think the antipathy towards Kincaid is more of a way to signal to ourselves and the world our relative sophistication than an actual referendum his art.

My mom collects adorable ceramic figurines of bears. Dressed like people ice skating and shit. That's not so much better. But she does it because she's a 60 year old woman. My dad has one painting of a ship that he liked. If I remember correctly it's pretty good in it's own way but it's not my bag. Art is almost always amoral and when artists think otherwise it's typically embarassing. I guess this method of jockeying for status is fine as far as it goes but it's probably no better than spending too much on clothes or just making more money.
posted by I Foody at 9:22 AM on June 10, 2010 [18 favorites]

nj_subgenius, that linked article is Pure. Fucking. Gold.

BD™ would be proud of you!
posted by dbiedny at 9:25 AM on June 10, 2010

No, no, FelliniBlank, that's a scene we really, really wish Kinkade would paint and the sooner the better.
posted by mygothlaundry at 9:28 AM on June 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

16 rules from Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light Repetitive, Sentimental Crap™, for making a movie based on his paintings.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 9:35 AM on June 10, 2010

I guess it should come as no surprise that he writes in the same style he paints.
posted by lyam at 9:55 AM on June 10, 2010

16 rules from Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light Repetitive, Sentimental Crap™, for making a movie based on his paintings.

So, let's see. The man claims to be Warhol's heir-apparent, AND wants his movie to look like Kubrick? No ego floating around him like a giant balloon, is there?
posted by hippybear at 9:56 AM on June 10, 2010

While working on a crossword puzzle in the morning paper, I came across the following hint: "Thomas Kinkade paints with these." The answer was "oils" and my lunch break was ruined.

Much better if the answer were "oiliness."
posted by bearwife at 10:21 AM on June 10, 2010

jesus christ how is it possible that a guy who has trademarked 'PAINTER OF LIGHT' is not aware that the natural world does not have that much purple light
posted by shakespeherian at 10:25 AM on June 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

Don't sweat it Tom. Vincent van Gogh died penniless, too.

the only thing they have in common
posted by archivist at 10:35 AM on June 10, 2010

This one actually is my desktop right now.
posted by Toothless Willy at 10:36 AM on June 10, 2010 [4 favorites]

The pleasure, the privilege is mine.
posted by gimonca at 10:50 AM on June 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

Sure, ridiculing the Painter of Light is all fun and games until our fucking hipster children start coopting his shit “ironically”, thus giving him a late-life surge in popularity wherein he will take advantage of these ironic consumers by claiming that he too was in on it all along.

Just wait until converse starts selling “all-stars of light” and etsy has a Kinkade-style silk screen fad.
posted by Think_Long at 11:03 AM on June 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

jesus christ how is it possible that a guy who has trademarked 'PAINTER OF LIGHT' is not aware that the natural world does not have that much purple light

And this is what gets my brain in a tizzy. The kind of cozy small town cottage universe Kinkade paints doesn't exist anymore. not really. He might as well be painting dragons and pixies. For all the cant about "small town values" Americans have been trying tooth and nail to destroy small towns completely. Think Bill Bryson's "The Lost Continent" - if we keep fetishistizing small towns in movies, songs, everything why do we keep bulldozing them over, stripping them of business, and then buy quaint little depictions of the idealized village life like some kind of sympathetic magic or luck charm that will magically create those values and feelings and and and - END OF LINE
posted by The Whelk at 11:10 AM on June 10, 2010 [2 favorites]

For all the cant about "small town values" Americans have been trying tooth and nail to destroy small towns completely. Think Bill Bryson's "The Lost Continent" - if we keep fetishistizing small towns in movies, songs, everything why do we keep bulldozing them over, stripping them of business, and then buy quaint little depictions of the idealized village life like some kind of sympathetic magic or luck charm that will magically create those values and feelings and and and - END OF LINE

I now feel compelled to write about how Kinkade is some ruthlessly ironic and subversive artist directly portraying aesthetic colonialisation, turning the sort of American 1930s hegemonic assumptions of cultural dominance on their ear and creating a Sambo/Injun motif of exactly the sort of ideology that did the same thing eighty years ago.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:32 AM on June 10, 2010

Now the circle is complete. A classmate of mine blew through millions in her lottery winnings on Thomas Kinkade originals as fine art investments. She too hit the brink.
posted by jadepearl at 11:39 AM on June 10, 2010

More like Painter Lite, amirite?
posted by Sys Rq at 11:39 AM on June 10, 2010 [2 favorites]

I live in the kind of small town that Kinkade fetishizes, and that has successfully resisted the forces that The Whelk describes. The nearest drive through - or chain store of any kind - is in the next town over, 15 miles away, and that's the way we want it, thankyouverymuch.

We were all pretty stoked when the Thomas Kinkade Painter of Light™ gallery closed a few years ago. That thing was widely considered an embarrassment.

This from a town with a whole entire store devoted to teddy bears. (It does a brisk business, too.)
posted by ErikaB at 11:49 AM on June 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

The Painter of Shite.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:53 AM on June 10, 2010

You just know that the Palins have a couple of Kinkade's hanging in their Alaskan living room.
posted by ericb at 11:58 AM on June 10, 2010

ErikaB:

I loved the neat twist in American Gods where SPOILER ALERT the postcard perfect cliche' American Town is being kept alive by an annual sacrifice disguised as a quaint local tradition. It was like the Lottery met Leave It To Beaver. END OF SPOILERS
posted by The Whelk at 11:59 AM on June 10, 2010

CBS News | 60 Minutes: Thomas Kinkade: A Success (w/ video).
posted by ericb at 12:03 PM on June 10, 2010

I find three things interesting about the Bambi painting.

The first is that out of a mere 223 words of description he managed to use the word "truly" three times. It takes talent to write that badly with so few words.

The second is how he doesn't seem to really have any ability to paint anything but landscapes and buildings. The characters do not fit the background at all, not merely stylistically but their poses etc seem to make them float above the landscape.

And finally I note the presence of the anomalous thunder storm, which seems out of place both for his paintings in general and for that one in specific. I can only assume it was put in to provide a proper macho lightning bolt backdrop for the eagle, which must be a stand in for America.

As far as Kinkade himself goes I'm torn, is he really just a con man using faux Christian/Jingoist kitch to make a quick buck off the rubes, or is he a man honestly into all that stuff he spews who happens to have gotten some ruthless business managers? I'm almost convinced it has to be an act, that no one could be that sappy in a non-deliberate way.
posted by sotonohito at 12:05 PM on June 10, 2010

From 2006:

(Karen Hazlewood and Jeffrey Spinello) and other ex-dealers allege that Kinkade used his religious beliefs — and manipulated theirs — to induce them to invest in Thomas Kinkade Signature Galleries, independently owned stores licensed to deal exclusively in his work. They also allege that they were stuck with unsalable inventory, forced to open additional stores in markets that could not sustain them and undercut by discounters that sold Kinkade prints at prices they were forbidden to match. And they accuse the artist of scheming to devalue Media Arts Group before he took the company private for $32.7 million in early 2004, renaming it Thomas Kinkade Co.

Quite a scam. 1) get hundreds of people to invest their life savings on your franchise, 2) aggressively undercut them with competing products and direct sales, 3) cause the stock of the company to nosedive, 4) buy out your own company at a budget rate, 5) profit.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 12:17 PM on June 10, 2010

My god, that Bambi painting.... It's pretty clear that the guy can't paint figures, but almost every creature in that painting (including one of the mice from Cinderella) is pulled stock art from the Disney archives. Such a hack!
Also, contrast and compare with some of the films original background art. He must be quite a salesman, because chops he hasn't got.
posted by biddeford at 12:55 PM on June 10, 2010

The landscape of the Bambi painting reminds me of bad fantasy-novel cover art. Both the perspective and geography don't make a lick of sense to me.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 1:10 PM on June 10, 2010

Sadly, his financial woes apparently have nothing to do with his lack of talent.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 1:17 PM on June 10, 2010

It may mean I'm an irredeemable nerd, but every time I hear or see the phrase "Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light," I silently respond with "then how come you had to cast Magic Missile?"
posted by Metroid Baby at 1:18 PM on June 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

From the Vanity Fair piece linked above by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey:

In 2006, the Artist Formally Known for Prints was successfully sued by two former gallery franchise owners, and a Los Angeles Times article from the same year accused him of drunkenly disrupting a Siegfried and Roy show in Las Vegas by repeatedly yelling, “Codpiece!” (The story prompted Kinkade to write his gallery owners a letter in which he admitted to behaving badly but also complained of “exaggerated, and in some cases outright fabricated personal accusations.")

I have nothing to add. What else is called for?
posted by Naberius at 1:19 PM on June 10, 2010

The landscape of the Bambi painting reminds me of bad fantasy-novel cover art. Both the perspective and geography don't make a lick of sense to me.

To be fair, the background landscape in the Mona Lisa also doesn't make a lick of sense.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:19 PM on June 10, 2010

Kinkade's business model is pretty crappy. So is the way he exploits Christianity and nationalism through sentimental kitsch. I'm not gonna defend the guy. I'm just confused when people say that the artwork itself is no good. He (or whoever paints in his name) seems to have a better-than-decent grasp of color and perspective. Even though it's not my favorite style, the painting is usually done with talent and is quite evocative. Of course, its merits then get obliterated by mass production and commercialism, but it's not horrible at first.

I agree that the Bambi picture was "off" in a few ways but I really can't honestly fault the artistic quality of his typical non-licensed cottage scenes and landscapes.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 1:22 PM on June 10, 2010

Good news kids! Even if Thomas Kincaid goes out of business, you can still have his art via paint-by-number!

Please, don't thank me.
posted by tommasz at 1:26 PM on June 10, 2010

Kincaid is to art what American Evangelism is to Christianity.
posted by five fresh fish at 1:28 PM on June 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

To be fair, the background landscape in the Mona Lisa also doesn't make a lick of sense.

Somehow I don't think that Kinkade is going for that Renaissance look.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 1:32 PM on June 10, 2010

I like to picture what it would be like to have a few stiff drinks with fellow Christians Thomas Kinkade and Mel Gibson.
posted by kozad at 1:41 PM on June 10, 2010

See I have a theory. Thomas Kinkade is in actually one of the greatest conceptual artists of our generation. His whole career, the paintings, everything is just one giant joke. Basically a giant middle finger at the rest of the art world. I fully expect him to come out right around retirement and admit to the whole thing with a giant nelsonesque "Ha Ha!".
I mean think about it, he manages to sell prints for thousands of dollars, charges hundreds more to have an assistant embellish that print, or thousands if you want him to add some brush strokes to it, and people line up for the privilege. Sure the works may be crap, but that man is a genius.
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 1:45 PM on June 10, 2010

Sure the works may be crap, but that man is a genius con man.
posted by ericb at 1:55 PM on June 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

See I have a theory. Thomas Kinkade is in actually one of the greatest conceptual artists of our generation. His whole career, the paintings, everything is just one giant joke. Basically a giant middle finger at the rest of the art world. I fully expect him to come out right around retirement and admit to the whole thing with a giant nelsonesque "Ha Ha!".
I mean think about it, he manages to sell prints for thousands of dollars, charges hundreds more to have an assistant embellish that print, or thousands if you want him to add some brush strokes to it, and people line up for the privilege. Sure the works may be crap, but that man is a genius.

So you're saying he's Jeff Koons.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:57 PM on June 10, 2010 [3 favorites]

With music even snobs are pretty tolerant about the sugary nothings with mass market appeal

Nah, we pretty much hate everyone who's actually selling a lot too.
posted by randomkeystrike at 2:09 PM on June 10, 2010

How odd, his paintings look like bad HDR photographs.
posted by bouvin at 2:32 PM on June 10, 2010

You guys know that he has a "studio" and doesn't paint all these by himself, right? When the WSJ mentions that he cranks out hundreds of them, what they mean is that there are a bunch of people doing his "style" working somewhere that he observes and then signs the finished product.

I mean, that sort of thing isn't all bad and many commercial artists do it (or more conceptual artists who have things fabricated in ways that aren't their particular skill) do it, but I kind of bet a lot of people think Kincade actually paints.
posted by mikeh at 2:32 PM on June 10, 2010

You guys know that he has a "studio" and doesn't paint all these by himself, right? When the WSJ mentions that he cranks out hundreds of them, what they mean is that there are a bunch of people doing his "style" working somewhere that he observes and then signs the finished product.

To be (kinda) fair this is also how classical workshops worked. The Master would do the primary figures and all the important bits and his apprentices would fill in all the cherubs and filigree and backgrounds. Da Vinci was considered a weirdo cause he never let ANYONE touch his paintings (and he took for.eve.er at them) and Rubens coveted the "singular Master" swagger so much that he'd hide his assistants under the bed or in closets when patrons came around to buy.

But that's a far cry from having people churn out "your" paintings, adding a dot of white on them and then signing them.


Okay my FINAL art history story - you know why it's so hard to authenticate Dali drawings? Cause at some point during his fame Dali signed a bunch of blank canvases and gave them to his friends with the instructions that if they where ever in need of money, they should do whatever and say it was his and sell it. That's not even getting into the whole "being locked in the cellar and forced to paint" thing.
posted by The Whelk at 2:48 PM on June 10, 2010 [3 favorites]

My parents used to be Kincade fans and they dragged me to a meet-n-greet of his once. He calls his kids "cottages." Also, he's irritating.

I am inordinately pleased to hear of this bankruptcy.
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:17 PM on June 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

I really don't have a problem with Kinkade as a commercial studio-owner with a recognizable style ala the Walt Disney Company, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Rembrandt van Rijn, The Warhol Factory, or Alexandre Dumas pere. Except that I still find his work nauseating.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 3:33 PM on June 10, 2010

"If my work became unpopular tomorrow, I'd receive that message," Kinkade says. "And because I'm a servant of art, I'd say to our culture, 'Culture, how can I reflect who this nation is and what it needs?' And then I'd go deliver it."

And there's the line, right there. I think it is appropriate that other mass-production oriented artists with lots of studio assistants and unapologetically commercial work are a part of this conversation. But one huge difference is that the other artists are interested in changing and following new ideas, new palettes, new subject matter, etc. They invent parameters, follow them for a while, see where it leads, and then invent new ones. This is a mark of an actual "servant of art", stripped of all bohemian pretense. (Gah, it hurts to even write that horrid phrase, even as a quotation.) Kinkade hasn't strayed from his formula at all. When he does--the racetrack and the Disney stuff for example--it is not to follow a new thread of artistic inquiry. It's just another venture.

(I think this is also the time where I get to mention the paintings I was making in '99 - 00 with oil on panel and a blowtorch, and earned the nickname Lighter of Paint.)
posted by Benjamin Nushmutt at 4:20 PM on June 10, 2010

Dali signed a bunch of blank canvases and gave them to his friends with the instructions that if they where ever in need of money, they should do whatever and say it was his and sell it

I love Dali. What a great attitude!
posted by five fresh fish at 4:49 PM on June 10, 2010

Tiffany was a brilliant craftsman with an artist's eye and imagination. He broke new ground in glasswork, and references a range of styles and cultures in his works. I don't think it is fair to "ala" him with Kincaide: the latter has none of those attributes.

Or what Benjamin says.
posted by five fresh fish at 4:54 PM on June 10, 2010

fff: I don't think it is fair to "ala" him with Kincaide: the latter has none of those attributes.

Missing the point (as usual.)
posted by KirkJobSluder at 5:39 PM on June 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

a brilliant craftsman with an artist's eye and imagination
posted by Sys Rq at 5:42 PM on June 10, 2010

Subject of my favorite Salon headline ever, when he wrote a book: "Thomas Kincaide, The Writer of Dreck (TM)."
posted by Sweetie Darling at 6:00 PM on June 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

KJS: no, not missing the point. Rather, saying there are better analogies to be made.

TK is "Love Is…" quality and ideals, not Tiffany.
posted by five fresh fish at 6:38 PM on June 10, 2010

fff: *sigh* Still are evidently.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 7:21 PM on June 10, 2010

Yah, whatever.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:29 PM on June 10, 2010

The Whelk, oh my yes, although since it's the Pacific Northwest we rarely get much ice, so we have to, you know... work fast.

(One of my favorite books - I pretty much have it memorized.)

Also I forgot to add that the space formerly held by the Thomas Kinkade Painter of Light™ Gallery is now a gallery dedicated to selling beautiful blown-glass art by local artists. Triple hooray!
posted by ErikaB at 8:55 PM on June 10, 2010

The Winsome Parker Lewis: I'm not gonna defend the guy. I'm just confused when people say that the artwork itself is no good. He (or whoever paints in his name) seems to have a better-than-decent grasp of color and perspective. Even though it's not my favorite style, the painting is usually done with talent and is quite evocative.

You're right that the artwork is competently painted—it's appealing, it looks nice. I think the reason people object to Kinkade on aesthetic grounds is that it looks overwhelmingly nice, almost to the point of nausea. The cumulative effect of all those glowing gas lanterns, shining cobblestones, snow-dappled fields, cozy roofs of thatch, sweetly meandering streams, luminescent sunsets, and gently rippling American flags is something like being waterboarded in a tub of ambrosia.

I Foody's comment is a very sensible one—a lot of the same people who like Kinkade are also the people who collect Precious Moments figurines and things like that. Not everybody needs to have Francis Bacon hanging on their walls. Still, from the treacly mass-produced art itself to the faux-Christian multimedia empire he's built, the guy makes himself awfully easy to hate.
posted by cirripede at 9:46 PM on June 10, 2010

It's Precious Moments being sold as real art.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:50 PM on June 10, 2010

Those dwarves seem to know very little of hydrology for professional geologists. Look at that stream, would you build your quaint little cottage there? One little rainstorm and you're yo-ho, yo-ho off-to-the-ocean we go.
posted by atrazine at 3:03 AM on June 11, 2010

We're gonna lose the cottage, Glenn!
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 6:09 AM on June 11, 2010

I want to know why the flower beds are in full bloom when the leaves on the road towards the castle are already getting their autumn colors. Is this another one of those “showing all seasons of God and the cyclical nature of time, truly” things?
posted by Think_Long at 9:24 AM on June 11, 2010

You're right that the artwork is competently painted—it's appealing, it looks nice. I think the reason people object to Kinkade on aesthetic grounds is that it looks overwhelmingly nice, almost to the point of nausea.

There's a series of chapters towards the end of Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being that makes a very strong argument for associating aesthetic kitsch with fascism.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:48 AM on June 11, 2010

"The filing came a day after Pacific Metro, formerly known as Thomas Kinkade Co. and Media Arts Group Inc., was supposed to make a $1 million payment to two former art gallery owners in connection with a lawsuit, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The filing will prevent Pacific Metro’s creditors, including Karen Hazlewood and Jeff Spinello, from demanding payment."

"The Chapter 11 petition was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Jose in the name of the Kinkade production arm, Pacific Metro of Morgan Hill, Calif. It allows Pacific Metro to reorganize and puts an automatic stay on the collection of all judgments, including one for $3 million owed to Karen Hazlewood and Jeff Spinello."

"Kinkade is a...deadbeat," said their lawyer, Norman Yatooma, who accused the artist and his Los Angeles attorney, Dana Levitt, of "breaching their agreement" to pay up. "Kinkade's word is as worthless as his artwork. His lawyer is no better."

In other words: Thomas Kinkade is still in business and laughing all the way to the bank ("bwahahaha!").

Bankruptcy or not; you can still make cross stich replicas of Kinkade pictures:
"Last month, family and friends held a prayer dedication service at the Irving Cancer Center inside Baylor Medical Center at Irving to honor the life of Judy Medina, a 14-year ovarian cancer survivor who succumbed to the disease last November. Judy's life will always be remembered at the Cancer Center and especially now with the donation by her husband Roland Medina of a framed counted cross stitch replica of a Thomas Kinkade painting. Roland donated the artwork to the Irving Healthcare Foundation after Judy died. Judy worked more than two years to complete the artwork."
posted by iviken at 1:24 PM on June 11, 2010

Good riddance.
posted by kdar at 6:48 PM on June 11, 2010

Kinkade arrested for DUI.
posted by availablelight at 4:41 AM on June 15, 2010

Ah sweet, sweet, schadenfreude....

I know I'm supposed to feel guilty about it, but I don't.
posted by sotonohito at 8:09 AM on June 15, 2010

Kinkade arrested for DUI.

Daubing Ugly Images?
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:35 PM on June 15, 2010