LBN! BREAKING Thomas Kinkade fans!!!

[underpants]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2483283&mesg_id=2483283

Painter (Kinkade) Said to Be Focus of FBI Probe (bilking Christians)

The FBI is investigating allegations that self-styled "Painter of Light" Thomas Kinkade and some of his top executives fraudulently induced investors to open galleries and then ruined them financially, former dealers contacted by federal agents said.

[Courtesy Flush]

1. NEVER do business with a fundy nt

[Radio_Lady]

2. Oh. That's an ugly story. I dislike his pictures and can't stand how he

commercialized them over the years.

What would the penalty be for these infractions?

I didn't knew he was a fundy! What happened to "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"?

Thanks for posting.

[asthmaticeog]

3. How he commercialized them over the years?

They were concieved as commercial to begin with. The guy knows he's a kitsch-monger and he always did. Everything else is just sales pitch. He NEVER had integrity to compromise.

[LynneSin]

4. "Touted as the most widely collected living U.S. artist"

Kinkade is not an artist, he's a schlockmeister who happens to be able to paint. The ability to paint does not make you an artist, being able to create unique masterful artwork does.

Any decent US Museum would not waste wall-space on mass-produced stuff.

THIS is collectable American Artwork:


This is mass-produced crap:


I find Bob Ross to be more artistic that that idiot Thomas Kinkade

[Ediacara]

5. Besides not being an artist, I wouldn't call him the creator if what....

people are colecting. He makes the original, then thousands of lithos are made and touched up by an army of painters. These lithos are then finalized by a few brushstrokes of Mr Kinkade himself. Then a pricetag of many thousands of dollars is tacked on! It's like putting a $5000 bill into a copy machine for one copy....

[Courtesy Flush]

6. I'm a bit of an artist myself

And I've always said (usually in reference to Rodrigue) that I'd paint potboilers like that myself if I could make millions at it, as he does.

But I look at Kincade's work and I can't say the same thing. Yes, the money would be nice, but I couldn't bring myself to paint elf houses and call it art. It amazes me that this stuff mutated from greeting card throwaway crap to collectable art that goes for thousands -- and tens of thousands -- a pop.

[hunter]

7. Go Bob Ross!

He encouraged people to make their own bad art. And in a few cases, people infected by his enthusiasm actually graduated to making better art. Bob Ross made shopping for thrift store art fun. I know it's weird, but I enjoy seeing Bob Ross inspired techniques applied in amateur paintings of identifiable places -- there's an inadvertent and innocent surrealism about it. (Yeah, I know it grates on more sophisticated artists, but these are people who wouldn't have picked up a paintbrush if not for Bob Ross.)

Ross is very much unlike Kinkade, who to me is like, "Oh shit, if this is heaven, I don't want to be here."

[LynneSin]

10. Bob Ross was the best Saturday morning TV when I was in College

Rest in Peace Bob, hope you're in heaven surrounded by the happy little clouds you put anywhere you want them

[MrCoffee]

8. Thomas Kinkade "Fans"...please report for delousing.

[RedG1]

9. NOTHING!...not even Kinkade beats my

"Dogs Playing Poker" painting on velvet <giggle>