A short defense of Thomas Kinkade
2008-11-21 15:05:28.670771+00 by Dan Lyke 1 comments
It is easy to rag on Thomas Kinkade, it is more difficult to mock Thomas Kinkade and be humorous. We can call his branding strategy for affiliated products "dreck", and ridicule his guidelines to artists working on his branded properties as "Thomas Kincade's 16 guidelines for making stuff suck", but...
I'm the first person to giggle over Sad Kermit, I like my art edgy and unsettling, but I why don't get there's this tremendous social outpouring to mock the comfortable, to ridicule those who seek that sense of peace and calm that paintings of cozy little well lit cottages give them. I guess this is an extension of my realization that Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins and that ilk aren't teachers, they're cheerleaders, and why do we cynically denigrate them in that role?