Thomas Kinkade's death

His work and beanie babies have a lot in common. Outside of the people who already own his work there won't be many others who buy it. In a decade the schlock will be worth almost nothing. I would rather have a velvet Elvis personally.

Heckling dead people is an honorable pastime.

Heckling them when they're alive is rude and may hurt their feelings.

I'm pretty sure he doesn't much care, and his "loved ones" are laughing all the way to the bank.

His family cares...

Heckling dead people is not honorable.

Hack away, if you must, then live with your actions knowing that his family is hurting and may be seeing what you wrote.

He was more successful and probably better than any of us here but jealousy got the better of us.

I didn't care for his work either but gazillions of people did. These negative comments are just jealousy... nothing more.

If anyone here is so much better then prove it. Paint something and sell copies for huge profit. Yeah, I thought so...

Sirius Glass said:

He was not an artist. He was an unethical hack who passed off his machine made copies the he wiped a little paint on and then sold them as though they were compete hand made paintings.

To mark his passing, I would like to pass the contents of my bladder on his grave, but even that would be bestowing too much honor on him.

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How do you really feel?

Old-n-Feeble: I agree with you except for the fact that I don't selling something for a huge profit is a mark of a good artist or anything else for that matter. Hell, I'll go sell weapons to some drug lords! There's gotta be good money in that.

Maybe he drank himself to death to forget that he had become "Thomas Kincade, Painter of Light."
Put yourself in his shoes for a second: You're a painter, maybe a pretty good one. You hit upon a style that people can't get enough of, it's like minting money. You're a clever fellow with finances, know some bankers who can line up capital, and you create a mammoth commercial empire selling sparkly junk as fast as you can crank it out. Now everyone knows you as that awful hack with Snow White landscapes in shopping malls. This wasn't quite the way you thought it would turn out. You really wanted to be on the wall next to Warhol or Jasper Johns. You used to be a pretty good painter, but everything's gone horribly, bizarrely wrong.

Good theory, but he started out doing background art in for animation films in the 80's...
Should he have wanted to have been a different type of painter he could have had a side gig, kinda like when musicians have a side band/solo outside their main gig

What little I know about Kinkade, he seems to have been happy to paint what he was good at (reguardless if any of us liked it or not - he created a niche/following)....

Oh well...sorry his tragedy couldn't have been more cinematic.

I believe Van Gogh and Picasso were ridiculed for much or all of their careers... as was Beethoven and... umm... Ansel Adams? Artists do find a niche which sells and makes them profit. I'm not "comparing" Kinkade's work with any of these masters. I'm just saying that the dead, who enjoyed great success, deserve a little respect from us UNSUCCESSFUL folk rather than our hateful/jealous commentary.

No they don't.

blansky... I always very much respect your comments. Not this time. Why speak so coldly and disrespectfully of the dead who did no real harm? Have you made millions from your artwork? Have you made millions happy with it?

Ya' know... T. Kinkade was like the "Dr. Seuss" of grown-up art. The greater populous loved him. It's too bad he didn't listen to the "common man" rather than us "snobs". If he did then he'd still be telling lovely visual bedtime stories to common folk and making them feel happy, safe and comfortable.

But no... we had a hand in him drinking himself to death with our cold and jealous comments.

Top that...

Old-n-Feeble, if you think others are jealous just because they think his work is crap, how does that make you look defending him?

When his work hangs at MOMA or any other major museum, let us know. Until then, I still think it is schlock. Frankly, even if it hung at MOMA, I would still think it is schlock.

I was trying to make a point. Why disrespect a person after they're dead? He had unprecedented success. How else should we interpret such hatred and disrespect?

Old-N-Feeble said:

blansky... I always very much respect your comments. Not this time. Why speak so coldly and disrespectfully of the dead who did no real harm? Have you made millions from your artwork? Have you made millions happy with it?

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Firstly, all I've said is that he turned out schlock for an unsophisticated market. Others may not have been so complimentary.

Have I made millions from my artwork? I've done pretty well.

Have I made millions happy? No, but probably a couple of thousand.

Do I think he's fair game? Yes. Due to the way he conducted his business.

When we insert ourselves into the public, then we are fair game for people's comments and opinions. And the act of dying doesn't make you sacrosanct.

As for hate or jealousy, I don't hate people because it takes emotions that I don't feel like wasting. Jealousy, nope. I don't want someone else's life's.

Kinkade's work is hyperbole. It presents an idyllic almost heavenly fantasy where people can escape for the moment in beauty and Godly safety from the problems of their regular lives. That's art. Because so many people look for that escape and wonder, he had become very successful commercially.

You might not like this kind of art, or photographers who try to similarly present an idyllic landscape. But why attack his person or denigrate his commercial success? We'd all be better off discussing his art and why it works for some and doesn't for others. And discuss how he made his work a business success. Maybe we'd learn something that would help us in our art and professional endeavors as well.

Why it worked? He found a least-common-denominator (what you mentioned about people needing an "all is well" factor), and exploited it. Why his work fails for me (and probably for many others, but I won't presume to speak for anyone else) is that very same thing - I don't want or need a reinforcement of "all is well". He was also a master of self-promotion, to the point of vanity. "The Painter of Light"? Please. Caravaggio was a "Painter of Light", and whose work was infinitely more "Christian" than Kinkade's. But even though I'm non-religious, I could sit and look at a Caravaggio religious painting all day every day and not get tired of seeing it. There's depth and "soul" to a Caravaggio, precisely because it embraces darkness and doubt and chaos and humanity in the midst of telling a religious story. Caravaggio painted REAL humans (he once used a known prostitute as a model for Mary, mother of Jesus, and depicted her complete with bare dirty feet) in the midst of real emotional struggle. Kinkade's paintings are as flat as the inkjet paper he over-daubed. Kinkade's faith is a faith without test, and if you read seminal religious philosophers (of just about any religion, not just Christianity), you'd know that the point of faith is that it is supposed to be tested, and it is valued because it is held in the face of adversity, and affirmed through adversity. Kincade caters to those who wish to live in a world where nothing changes, everyone and everything is the same, black and white, good and evil are all clearly defined, and making moral choices is no more difficult than choosing ones breakfast cereal.

HDR with paint! Dig it. Who knew?

Some of the reasons people dislike Kinkaid that had nothing to do with being jealous.....


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001...8790.shtml?tag=currentVideoInfo;videoMetaInfo



Business
Thomas Kinkade's limited edition "Cinderella Wishes Upon A Dream" framed print being sold on a shopping channel.
Kinkade received criticism for the extent to which he had commercialized his art, for example, selling his prints on various home shopping channels The file File:Thomas Kinkade print being sold on shopping channel.ogg has an uncertain copyright status and may be deleted. You can comment on its removal.

Kinkade's works are sold by mail order and in dedicated retail outlets. Some of the prints also feature light effects that are painted onto the print surface by hand by "skilled craftsmen," touches that add to the illusion of light and the resemblance to an original work of art, and which are then sold at higher prices. Licensing with Hallmark and other corporations have made it possible for Kinkade's images to be used extensively on other merchandise such as calendars, puzzles, greeting cards, and CDs. By December 2009, his images also appeared on Wal-Mart gift cards.

He has also authored or been the subject of over 120 books and is the only artist to license his trademark and artwork to multiple housing developments.[citation needed]

Kinkade is reported to have earned $53 million for his artistic work in the period 1997 to May 2005.[19]

At the height of his business, there was a national network of several hundred Thomas Kinkade Signature Galleries, however they began to falter during the Great Recession. In June 2010, his Morgan Hill, California manufacturing operation that reproduces the art filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, listing nearly $6.2 million in creditors' claims.[7] The company, Pacific Metro, plans to reduce its costs by outsourcing much of its manufacturing.[20]
[edit] Criticism of business practices

Kinkade's company, Media Arts Group Inc., has been accused of unfair dealings with owners of Thomas Kinkade Signature Gallery franchises. In 2006, an arbitration board awarded Karen Hazlewood and Jeffrey Spinello $860,000 in damages and $1.2 million in fees and expenses due to Kinkade's company "[failing] to disclose material information" that would have discouraged them from investing in the gallery.[21][22][23] The award was later increased to $2.8 million with interest and legal fees.[24] The plaintiffs and other former gallery owners have also leveled accusations of being pressured to open additional galleries that were not financially viable, being forced to take on expensive, unsalable inventory, and being undercut by discount outlets whose prices they were not allowed to match.[25]

Kinkade denied the accusations and Media Arts Group successfully defended itself in previous suits by other former gallery owners. Kinkade himself was not singled out in the finding of fraud by the arbitration board.[22]

In August 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported that the FBI was investigating these issues, with agents from offices across the country conducting interviews.[26]

Former gallery dealers also charged that Kinkade uses Christianity as a tool to take advantage of people. "They really knew how to bait the hook," said one ex-dealer who spoke on condition of anonymity. "They certainly used the Christian hook."[27] One former dealer's lawyer stated "Most of my clients got involved with Kinkade because it was presented as a religious opportunity. Being defrauded is awful enough, but doing it in the name of God is really despicable."[28] On June 2, 2010, Pacific Metro, the artist's production company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, one day after defaulting on a $1 million court imposed payment to the aforementioned Karen Hazlewood and Jeffrey Spinello.[24] A $500,000 payment had previously been disbursed.

During the years 1997 through 2005, court documents show at least 350 independently owned Kinkade franchises at its peak. By May 2005, that number had more than halved. Kinkade received $50 million during this period.[24] An initial cash investment of $80,000 to $150,000 is listed as a startup cost for franchisees.[29]

Old-N-Feeble said:

... I'm just saying that the dead, who enjoyed great success, deserve a little respect from us UNSUCCESSFUL folk rather than our hateful/jealous commentary.

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No one deserves respect. One earns it.

If you are one of "us UNSUCCESSFUL folk" so be it; I do not judge you. I have been very successful in multiple fields and my successes were not based in duping and taking advantage of both unknowledgeable or gullible people.

Klainmeister said:

Sirius Glass said:

He was not an artist. He was an unethical hack who passed off his machine made copies the he wiped a little paint on and then sold them as though they were compete hand made paintings.

To mark his passing, I would like to pass the contents of my bladder on his grave, but even that would be bestowing too much honor on him.

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How do you really feel?

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Shucks, I guess I have to work more on making my thoughts and opinions more succinct and clear. I will get right on it. Thanks for the heads up!

Art, money and religion is an unsavory mix. All you need is two of the three to make an unholy alliance. May I also add politics too. But regarding Kincade, I'm sure he's a skilled artist. But he knows how to tap into what people like and mass market it. His product is devoid of soul and culture. It's like fast food restaurants knowing what people like. Just like fast food, you don't feel good if it's the only thing one consumes. Both makes consumers disconnected and unchallenged which probably is the appeal. As one Zydeco musician said "I'd rather have a hot bowl of gumbo than a cold American hot dog."

TheFlyingCamera said:

Why it worked? He found a least-common-denominator (what you mentioned about people needing an "all is well" factor), and exploited it. Why his work fails for me (and probably for many others, but I won't presume to speak for anyone else) is that very same thing - I don't want or need a reinforcement of "all is well". He was also a master of self-promotion, to the point of vanity. "The Painter of Light"? Please. Caravaggio was a "Painter of Light", and whose work was infinitely more "Christian" than Kinkade's. But even though I'm non-religious, I could sit and look at a Caravaggio religious painting all day every day and not get tired of seeing it. There's depth and "soul" to a Caravaggio, precisely because it embraces darkness and doubt and chaos and humanity in the midst of telling a religious story. Caravaggio painted REAL humans (he once used a known prostitute as a model for Mary, mother of Jesus, and depicted her complete with bare dirty feet) in the midst of real emotional struggle. Kinkade's paintings are as flat as the inkjet paper he over-daubed. Kinkade's faith is a faith without test, and if you read seminal religious philosophers (of just about any religion, not just Christianity), you'd know that the point of faith is that it is supposed to be tested, and it is valued because it is held in the face of adversity, and affirmed through adversity. Kincade caters to those who wish to live in a world where nothing changes, everyone and everything is the same, black and white, good and evil are all clearly defined, and making moral choices is no more difficult than choosing ones breakfast cereal.

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Couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks for bringing up Caravaggio.

Gotta admit, I love the financial bunko aspect of all this. Maybe it WAS art....a kind of performance art for the Wall Street rip-off goo-goo-fundamentalist anti-intellectual kitsch-swilling early 21st Century America-in-decline reality we all inhabit. Heck of a sentence, that.

Old-N-Feeble said:

I'm just saying that the dead, who enjoyed great success, deserve a little respect from us UNSUCCESSFUL folk rather than our hateful/jealous commentary.

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I'll respect the person if, and only if, I respect WHAT they did and HOW they did it. I respect neither in Kinkade's case. If "great success" is your benchmark, do you also respect the people who run drug cartels?

Possibly quite true

sdotkling said:

Gotta admit, I love the financial bunko aspect of all this. Maybe it WAS art....a kind of performance art for the Wall Street rip-off goo-goo-fundamentalist anti-intellectual kitsch-swilling early 21st Century America-in-decline reality we all inhabit. Heck of a sentence, that.

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You sound like Mark Morford I get the feeling that Kinkade's art could be a cultural product of Wealth Ministries from the type of Joel Osteen. Wealth is to be worn like a cloak as an indicator of God's approval. The poor and the unsuccessful on the other hand are being punished. Am I way off here?