Thomas Kinkade, painter in Final Farewells Forum

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Thomas Kinkade, painter

Author	Comment
pulp novelties		#41	[-]
Apr 12 12 4:12 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	It's funny this thread actually caused me to do some reading about a man I knew little about last night, and I can safely say that I think less of him now that I've read the inner workings of the Kinkade industrial art machine and the various suits levied against it, his opportunistic pardoning to the religious right, the self-produced bio-pic designed to clean up his image, and some of his general conduct. I can now see why he got more scorn than just for making a killing on kitschy landscapes.
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n0s4a2		#42	[-]
Apr 12 12 6:31 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	His live-in girlfreind Amy Pinto said that Kinkade “died in his sleep, very happy, in the house he built, with the paintings he loved, and the woman he loved.” However, an emergency dispatcher described a “54-year-old male, unconscious, not breathing. Apparently he has been drinking all night and not moving …” A 2006 LA Times article lists the following incidents: "an allegedly drunken Kinkade heckled illusionists Siegfried and Roy; cursed a former employee's wife who came to his side when he fell off a barstool; fondled a startled woman's breasts at a signing party; and urinated on a Winnie the Pooh figure at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim." Kinkade was facing a number of arbitration claims from owners of his galleries across the country, and the LA Times reports that one gallery filed for bankruptcy in 2010. The lawyer on the case referred to Kinkade as a "deadbeat" and went on to say that "Kinkade's word is as worthless as his artwork." At the time of his death, Kinkade owed about $9 million to at least 165 creditors, Newser reports.
Saturday8pm		#43	[-]
Apr 12 12 6:51 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Sure we're not getting confused with Reuben Kinkade? Note that Kinkade has "Kink" within. Oh, those cwazy artists ... "Lord I love Spring! The birds, the fair weather, the new flowers. It doesn't get any better than this. HOLY CRAP! what's THAT?!?"
Wich2		#44	[-]
Apr 12 12 7:16 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	>Sure we're not getting confused with Reuben Kinkade?< Now, just WAITAMINIT there...!
Monstroso Sabroso		#45	[-]
Apr 13 12 7:52 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Basically, I agree with what Rick says, upthread a bit. So NOW we're going to get stuffy about what's critically respected and what isn't? Oh really? I wouldn't class myself as a fan of his work either, OK. But Kinkade completely jumps the critical establishment and makes art which people buy. Twist that any way you want -- that he's the parlor version of Big Daddy Roth -- but you have to give him that much. Of course that doesn't make it great art. If we're disinclined, we don't even have to respect it as the great business success that it was and is. But if the only argument we really have to counter his success in sales and popularity is culturally received disdain -- third hand celeb news snark, hipster irony or the scorn of academics -- at best I'd say it's a draw between our version of the way things oughta be, and theirs (those who un-self-consciously enjoy the man's world). So Kinkade got rich while "truly deserving" artists lived and died in modest circumstances. That's what really sticks in our craw, isn't it. While that is always a bitter pill, Kinkade can't be singled out to bear the weight of that ages-old condition. And where I disagree with Bakshi is in that I don't believe Kinkade has to bear the weight, either, of the composition of his audience. Kinkade was not a demagogue and his art is not pedantic. His route to success is as direct as Disney's: build a place less-complicated in a world of trouble, and people will come. Give the people what they want. R.I.P. Thomas Kinkade. Rest well. ---- A reminder to those who see Kinkade's candy-colored palette as an abomination of all that's holy... Artists far more stylistically sophisticated than Kinkade have succumbed to the lure of pure sugar, and the clamor of the audience for more and sweeter. For me, Kinkade was no Parrish (no Hannes Bok, even). But maybe the key words in that or any sentence about art are "for me". It's all subjective any way you slice it. Whatever it is, it is for you. Enjoy yours and let the other guy have his. Ya know? "I consider it dispassionately as a possibility -- not hysterically as a fact." President William Windom Last Edited By: Monstroso Sabroso Apr 13 12 8:48 PM. Edited 1 times.
acker j forestman		#46	[-]
Apr 13 12 9:42 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	n0s4a2 wrote: His live-in girlfreind Amy Pinto said that Kinkade “died in his sleep, very happy, in the house he built, with the paintings he loved, and the woman he loved.” However, an emergency dispatcher described a “54-year-old male, unconscious, not breathing. Apparently he has been drinking all night and not moving …” A 2006 LA Times article lists the following incidents: "an allegedly drunken Kinkade heckled illusionists Siegfried and Roy; cursed a former employee's wife who came to his side when he fell off a barstool; fondled a startled woman's breasts at a signing party; and urinated on a Winnie the Pooh figure at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim." Kinkade was facing a number of arbitration claims from owners of his galleries across the country, and the LA Times reports that one gallery filed for bankruptcy in 2010. The lawyer on the case referred to Kinkade as a "deadbeat" and went on to say that "Kinkade's word is as worthless as his artwork." At the time of his death, Kinkade owed about $9 million to at least 165 creditors, Newser reports. I have to admit, Kinkade is sounding more and more like a real artist.
Mora		#47	[-]
Apr 13 12 10:57 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well, with this info all of my wife's illusions regarding Mr. K. will certainly be shot to hell. Now I don't feel so shocked by his "sudden death". Always amazes me when a person of a gentle passion (artistic or otherwise) turns out to be far removed from how he has been publicly perceived. I only hope that the late Bob Ross, an artist whom I've personally long admired, doesn't suddenly become revealed as a less-than-admirable human being. But truth will out, I suppose.
Wich2		#48	[-]
Apr 13 12 11:42 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	A death at age 54 that's announced as being "from natural causes" immediately rings alarm bells. >A reminder to those who see Kinkade's candy-colored palette as an abomination of all that's holy...< Well, I surely don't see it as that. But as I already touched on above, those other artists' works seem ("to me," as you say) to have their own - heightened, granted - reality. Kinkade's, for me, never had any reality of any kind. Locations, lighting effects, the whole thing, just look as phony and as flat as a three-dollar bill. As far as "demagoguery"? Well, some of the legal/financial stuff listed above comes close to that; and as testified elsewhere, he seems to have been very willing to fake the role of squeaky-clean boy that his patrons yearned for him to be.
pulp novelties		#49	[-]
Apr 13 12 12:49 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Wich2 wrote: A death at age 54 that's announced as being "from natural causes" immediately rings alarm bells. >A reminder to those who see Kinkade's candy-colored palette as an abomination of all that's holy...< Well, I surely don't see it as that. But as I already touched on above, those other artists' works seem ("to me," as you say) to have their own - heightened, granted - reality. Kinkade's, for me, never had any reality of any kind. Locations, lighting effects, the whole thing, just look as phony and as flat as a three-dollar bill. As far as "demagoguery"? Well, some of the legal/financial stuff listed above comes close to that; and as testified elsewhere, he seems to have been very willing to fake the role of squeaky-clean boy that his patrons yearned for him to be. It sounds like some of the marketing of his work involved making it seem as if it were commissioned by god himself. From Wiki 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." I think it's true that you could look at the color schemes of a Maxfield Parish and see them as ornamental. You can also look at the content of a Norman Rockwell illustration as dripping with sentiment. Michelangelo was a brilliant painter, but worked in a day when religious themes constituted the vast majority of commissions, and artists were expected to capture god, not sell themselves as holy. Kinkade's work on the other hand is a distillation of all the exploitable elements in better artists work. He uses Parish's dynamic colors minus his incredible grace an sense of design. He's more sentimental than Rockwell, but lacks Rockwell's ability inject realism an immediacy in his images. He apparently also played "the god card, " not because he was commissioned to do so, nor because he was pious man, but because it added further appeal to a demographic already amenable to his style. Though he certainly wasn't "an artist's artist" he may well have been "a Hack's, hack" using only the hooks other popular painters to create the most marketable product. Last Edited By: pulp novelties Apr 13 12 5:27 PM. Edited 1 times.
Saturday8pm		#50	[-]
Apr 13 12 3:52 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Business has been exploiting art for money since the dawn of time. Kinkade is no better or worse than another peddler of technique, Bob Ross. Any way you slice it, it's just anudder version of commercial art. He passed it to sell it, period. The more cerebral painters were on a quest for varying reasons. Kinkade was on a quest for cash. That people want to lift themselves from poverty to provide for themselves and family is a no-brainer. To demean someone's life's work as unworthy for any human consumption is kinda totalitarian and small. Kinkade is OK in small amounts. Renaissance grade? No. Fun? Yes. Disposable? You decide. But don't take up too much bandwidth trying to convince others what's art and what's not. You ain't gonna win, 'cuz: Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. "Lord I love Spring! The birds, the fair weather, the new flowers. It doesn't get any better than this. HOLY CRAP! what's THAT?!?"
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Monstroso Sabroso		#51	[-]
Apr 13 12 4:22 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Wich2 wrote: ...he seems to have been very willing to fake the role of squeaky-clean boy that his patrons yearned for him to be. "That's show biz" "I consider it dispassionately as a possibility -- not hysterically as a fact." President William Windom
HalLane		#52	[-]
Apr 13 12 4:40 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The only thing I found really annoying about Kinkade is that pretentious moniker "Painter of Light". What painter *isn't* a painter of light? Annoying. Now, if he means it as an allegorical 'seeing Beyond' kind of thing, I guess I can sorta see it. But truth be told, I see more "Light" on a daily basis in the CHFB Members Art Gallery, and a more honest and genuine brilliance it is too. You can't have Light without Dark, and the CHFB has got it all covered in spades. And leave us not leave out the fact that Maxfield Parrish's beautiful work was done for calendars, and Norman Rockwell's for magazine covers. Commercialism in itself is no sin.
pulp novelties		#53	[-]
Apr 13 12 5:38 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	HalLane wrote: The only thing I found really annoying about Kinkade is that pretentious moniker "Painter of Light". What painter *isn't* a painter of light? Annoying. Now, if he means it as an allegorical 'seeing Beyond' kind of thing, I guess I can sorta see it. But truth be told, I see more "Light" on a daily basis in the CHFB Members Art Gallery, and a more honest and genuine brilliance it is too. You can't have Light without Dark, and the CHFB has got it all covered in spades. And leave us not leave out the fact that Maxfield Parrish's beautiful work was done for calendars, and Norman Rockwell's for magazine covers. Commercialism in itself is no sin. Michelangelo was commissioned for his most famous works, even he was something of an "illustrator." As I said earlier in this thread, if Kinkade had been a humble illustrator of children's book or an animator in Disney's animation department, we'd probably not be tearing down his legacy. I do have to say however that the "He isn't the first commercial hack to be a relentless motivated by the almighty dollar" doesn't change my moderate disdain for him and others like him. I suppose it's an matter of degree. There are plenty of commercially successful artists I do admire, it's no sin to earn a living and get recognition for your achievements along the way.
Monsterpal		#54	[-]
Apr 13 12 5:42 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Either you like it or you don't. If you like it, a lot of people will consider you an idiot. If you don't like it, a lot of people will consider you a snob. I guess that makes me a snob. Hey, that didn't hurt a bit.
Monstroso Sabroso		#55	[-]
Apr 13 12 8:10 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	To know what you like is no small thing. "I consider it dispassionately as a possibility -- not hysterically as a fact." President William Windom
Wich2		#56	[-]
Apr 13 12 8:44 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I'll tell you - that there puppy has some sort of eye condition, is what!
Monstroso Sabroso		#57	[-]
Apr 13 12 8:51 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Yep. And chalk up one more for Ole Blue Eyes. "I consider it dispassionately as a possibility -- not hysterically as a fact." President William Windom
HalLane		#58	[-]
Apr 14 12 6:00 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Frank doesn't look quite so lonely hanging with Wich2's avatar.
Victor Frankenstein		#59	[-]
May 8 12 3:00 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Los Angeles (CNN) -- Artist Thomas Kinkade's death last month was from an accidental overdose of alcohol and Valium, according to the Santa Clara County, California, medical examiner. Kinkade, 54, also suffered from hypertensive and atherosclerotic heart disease, said the autopsy report released Monday. The report cited "acute ethanol and diazepam intoxication" as the cause of death and "accidental" as the manner of death. Diazepam is a prescription anti-anxiety drug also known as Valium. Kinkade, one of the most popular artists in America, painted more than 1,000 pieces on various topics, including cabins, nature scenes, seascapes and classic Americana. Art from the self-described "painter of light," adorns many living rooms in America. It emphasizes simple pleasures and warm, positive images of idyllic cottages, lighthouses and colorful gardens. "He had a rare ability to exude a sense of warmth, a transcendent light," said Robert Goodwin, who wrote the book "Points of Light: A Celebration of the American Spirit of Giving," with Kinkade. "He had a great commitment to inspire others -- one who was nurtured in his early life by family and friends and church to really be an example of selfless acts of service," he said Saturday. "My mission as an artist is to capture those special moments in life adorned with beauty and light," Kinkade said in a message on his website. "I work to create images that project a serene simplicity that can be appreciated and enjoyed by everyone. That's what I mean by sharing the light." In 2006, the artist recalled one of his earliest lessons during an interview with CNN's Larry King. "When I was a young boy, my mother told me, 'Your talents are God's gifts to you, and what you do with those talents are your gift to God,'" he said.
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Thomas Kinkade, painter