Defend the indefensible - Thomas Kinkade

tiny sliver of dewy morning soft light coming in through prison bars

the celestial blaze of christ's love

In 2006 John Dandois, Media Arts Group executive, recounted a story that on one occasion ("about six years ago") Kinkade became drunk at a Siegfried & Roy magic show in Las Vegas and began shouting "Codpiece! Codpiece!" at the performers. Eventually he was calmed by his mother.[26] Dandois also said of Kinkade, "Thom would be fine, he would be drinking, and then all of a sudden, you couldn't tell where the boundary was, and then he became very incoherent, and he would start cussing and doing a lot of weird stuff."[26]

Kinkade is famous for his paintings of cottages, country gardens and churches in dewy morning light.

something about this sentence is hilarious to me

nice mugshot. i seriously would never have imagined he looked like that.

people interested in the dogwoods story should listen to "three dogwoods" by nick charles, on stax volt weirdly enough. it's sung from the POINT OF VIEW OF THE DOGWOOD.

I'm amazed he was able to pull off a double life as lead singer of Smash Mouth for this long without anyone noticing.

That SHIRT

Button-Down of Light

he looks like he should be managing a boy band or something

so for some reason Kinkade reminds me of my friend's father, who is a weirdo hippie Christian dude who writes speciality inspirational poems. http://poemsbydanny.com/index.php

Ladies and gentlemen... SCHADENFREUDE

follow-up: Thomas Kinkade's new Christmas cottage is a California jail cell

guy just seems like a dumb drunk tbh

An analysis of the Thomas Kinkade calendar for March.

anthony e's semi-defense of kinkade upthread is totally interesting and almost works but ugh ugh puke thomas kinkade almost makes me regret that visual art even exists

RIP big guy. you're in pastel saturated highlighted heaven now.

HA, I was going to make a spurious joke wondering if he'd overdosed yet

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2012-04/69261538.jpg

http://3weirdsisters.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/chthulu-thomas-kinkade-lighthouse1.jpg

Spokesman says death was caused by "what appeared to be natural causes"

Good job Cthulhu!

"curious amount of seawater in his lungs"

Natural Causes at the age of 54? Do we need to speculate on what he'd been consuming/inhaling?

R.I.P. sweet prints

The Los Angeles Times has reported that some of Kinkade's former colleagues, employees, and even collectors of his work say that he has a long history of cursing and heckling other artists and performers. The Times further reported that he openly groped a woman's breasts at a South Bend, Indiana sales event, and mentioned his proclivity for ritual territory marking through urination, once relieving himself on a Winnie the Pooh figure at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim while saying "This one's for you, Walt."[27][28]

Lol

When's the documentary coming out?

In 2006 John Dandois, Media Arts Group executive, recounted a story that on one occasion ("about six years ago") Kinkade became drunk at a Siegfried & Roy magic show in Las Vegas and began shouting "Codpiece! Codpiece!" at the performers.

Who among us cannot relate to that?

me and Beth were wandering around Palm Springs about midnight and came upon a Kinkade shop, with a lit painting in the window of a birds-view of lower Manhatten, with a huge billowing American flag in the foreground, like a birthday cake that Miss America was about to burst out of. It was so shamelessly patriotic, and the sugary colors so fetching, I couldn't decide what I felt-- a mixture of disgust, longing (or something), giggles, and wanting to smash the window. It uccurs to me now that he and Jeff Koons are like soul brothers of kitsch-- one is commenting on it, the other embodies it. Two sides of the same coin. Kinkade is heads to Koons tail.

OTM

http://www.register123.com/event/accounts/register123/disney/disneyland/events/kinkade2005/kinkade1.jpg

#OccupyDisney
Oil on Canvas, 2012

http://michaeljameshawk.com/blog1/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/db_make_a_wish_cottage_thomas_kinkade1.jpg

Truth Only Arrives at the Moment of Slaughter
Oil on Canvas, 1993

lol Eazy

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/559772_10151501850225647_733810646_24279281_1098897222_n.jpg

40 Acres and a Mule (for Tompkins Square)
Oil on canvas, 1989

I really like his paintings.

i don't really like his paintings, but i always found it odd that so many made such a big deal out of loathing him. his paintings strongly resemble the little cast resin faerie cottages for sale in gift shops everywhere, and no one seems to harbor any special hatred for those. nor has he enjoyed anything like dale chihuly's undeserved acceptance in the fine art world. his work is pretty, quaint, comforting, completely unpretentious, distinctive & well-executed, pretty much entirely vacant, and undeniably kitschy. not my thing, but nothing to which i feel the need to object strenuously.

people don't loathe him, people loathe his target demographic

i mean, i know it's the conservative blandness, simpering "charm" and obvious christian pandering that gets people's dander up, but it's never bugged me much. then again, i never knew much about kinkade, other than the tales of drunken shenanigans. he could have been some foaming fundie racist for all i know...

people loathe his target demographic

makes sense

wtf @ ur sneak attack on Chihuly, contenderizer. PISTOLS AT DAWN

had a friend who was an office assistant for chihuly & his team. heard so so many funny/sad stories abt his ways. not that i was a fan to begin with. his celebrity is a plague on my corner of the world.

not nec the kitsch per se, but the dim powderpuff colors, like something might find in an oh so tasteful funeral parlour ca. 1985--yeah, that late, or even today, prob w Kinkade knockoffs. Defense: at least he didn't live forever! Although he may turn out to be the Jimi Trane L.Ron of posthumous prolific-being.

there's nothing really wrong with his paintings per se, just the pervasiveness, perhaps

i don't get too bent out of shape by him

I kinda like the glowy intensity of his palatte, has kind of a 2ci vibe.

I never cared one way or the other about Thomas Kinkade (outside of knowing that my mother and grandmother liked his paintings) until I saw the 60 Minutes piece about him in 2001. His whole operation just rubbed me the wrong way.

http://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/20663317749/cottages

he seemed like a real shithead tbh

Sure, Thomas. Picasso may seem important now, but in 100 years your roadside shlock will be the toast of art historians who have kicked Pablo to the curb.

thomas kinkade never not called an asshole

nor has he enjoyed anything like dale chihuly's undeserved acceptance in the fine art world.

Yeah so, what did dale chihuly do to you?

Ok wow I did not know he did backgrounds for Fire and Ice

So yes, Thomas Kinkade worked with Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta on awesome animated metal fantasy.

He came on like a flame, then he turned a cold shoulder.

yeah i had no idea until i listened to an interview with bakshi a few months ago that kinkade got his start on fire and ice