112 replies to this topic

[Peter T Chattaway]

Amid Amidi @ CartoonBrew.com:

Christian painter (and former Ralph Bakshi employee) Thomas Kinkade, who once allegedly urinated on a Winnie the Pooh figure outside the Disneyland Hotel while yelling, “This one’s for you, Walt,” is now an official Disney licensee who is turning out “limited edition” paintings based on the studio’s films. . . .

Edited by Peter T Chattaway, 28 September 2010 - 02:53 PM.

[techne]

well now, that makes perfect sense!

[Jason Panella]

I was hoping Pinocchio would pee on the town.

[du Garbandier]

Dark Times Befall 'Painter Of Light'

What caught my eye here is something said by a Kinkade admirer:

Quote

Kayne, who was browsing an art gallery in Irvine, Calif., says she particularly likes Kinkade's winter vistas — the perfect blankets of snow over peaceful gardens, the snow-covered cottages lit from within.

"I think it harkens back to some imagined past," she says, "before cities, before crowds, before traffic, before the stresses of everyday life."

That phrase is a remarkable echo of a line in "The Bright Field" by the Welsh poet R. S. Thomas:

Quote

I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receeding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

Edited by du Garbandier, 30 November 2010 - 10:26 AM.

[J.A.A. Purves]

You know, I've never had anything against Kinkade. My mom likes him. Both my grandmothers like him. In college, girls hung up Kinkade posters and calendars and etc. in their dorms. In friends' houses now, nice ladies hang up Thomas Kinkade paintings in the more flowery rooms with the doilies. Most of the girls I've dated have liked him. So I've always just dismissed Kinkade as a painter women like. I know he's unpopular here at A&F (and yes, I'm quite sure there are women who don't like him), but I don't see why I should criticize or resent him just because he's found a very marketable product for which there is apparently a high demand. I don't quite understand the demand personally, but it's not like anyone has seriously claimed that Kinkade paints great works of art (other than Christian bookstore/gallery owners).

[mrmando]

Persiflage, on 16 December 2010 - 12:18 PM, said:

I don't see why I should criticize or resent him just because he's found a very marketable product for which there is apparently a high demand.

One could say the same about meth dealers, methinks.

[Andy Whitman]

mrmando, on 16 December 2010 - 12:54 PM, said:

Persiflage, on 16 December 2010 - 12:18 PM, said:

I don't see why I should criticize or resent him just because he's found a very marketable product for which there is apparently a high demand.

One could say the same about meth dealers, methinks.

Right. And with meth there is no saccharine aftertaste.

[Overstreet]

Andy Whitman, on 16 December 2010 - 01:02 PM, said:

mrmando, on 16 December 2010 - 12:54 PM, said:

One could say the same about meth dealers, methinks.

Right. And with meth there is no saccharine aftertaste.

And every meth trip is unique and special.

And you have to go out of your way to obtain it, which adds value to the experience.

Whereas, well...

[Gina]

du Garbandier, on 30 November 2010 - 10:25 AM, said:

That phrase is a remarkable echo of a line in "The Bright Field" by the Welsh poet R. S. Thomas:

Quote

I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receeding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

I love that.

[Overstreet]

I find it remarkable that as of this year, both Martha Stewart and Thomas Kinkade will have done jail time.

[mrmando]

Which raises the irresistible question: Which is more likely - that Martha Stewart had a Kinkade print in her jail cell, or that Thomas Kinkade will have a copy of Martha Stewart Living in his?

I have met Martha Stewart, and my brother used to work in a Kinkade gallery...

[Holy Moly!]

Persiflage, on 16 December 2010 - 12:18 PM, said:

You know, I've never had anything against Kinkade. My mom likes him. Both my grandmothers like him. In college, girls hung up Kinkade posters and calendars and etc. in their dorms. In friends' houses now, nice ladies hang up Thomas Kinkade paintings in the more flowery rooms with the doilies. Most of the girls I've dated have liked him. So I've always just dismissed Kinkade as a painter women like. I know he's unpopular here at A&F (and yes, I'm quite sure there are women who don't like him), but I don't see why I should criticize or resent him just because he's found a very marketable product for which there is apparently a high demand. I don't quite understand the demand personally, but it's not like anyone has seriously claimed that Kinkade paints great works of art (other than Christian bookstore/gallery owners).

Maybe we should start a thread entitled "Why Ugly Matters".

The most fundamental issue is that there is something hegemonic about the idealized world of this art. It is an act of violence against the populace. Just like Susan Boyle.

[SDG]

Holy Moly!, on 23 December 2010 - 08:34 AM, said:

Just like Susan Boyle.

???

I have read critical assaults on Susan Boyle. I have never not been struck by their mean-spiritedness and/or perversity.

[CrimsonLine]

I tend to think it's a class thing. I was reading an article on the reception that Kate Middleton is getting among many class-conscious Britons since her engagement to Prince William. In Britain, her status is as a commoner, not a royal, and some people are upset at the mixing of common and royal blood. In Britain, class is about birth and breeding. Americans don't have the same view of class; though we do have class distinctions, they are based more in money, education, and tastes than in birth. And of course, in America, you can change classes fairly easily.

Think about it - if you're an American, can you call to mind a mental image of a person who would have pink flamingo statues and lawn gnomes on their front yard? Perhaps a wooden cutout that resembles the backside of a heavyset woman bending over to do her gardening? Call that person to mind, now go inside their home. Would you be surprised to find a Kinkade painting in their home?

Americans like to protest that we are not class conscious, but we are, just in different ways. That's not to say there's no such thing as objectively better or worse art. But "taste" is often shaped by what class a person lives in - and what class they want to shun or avoid. Christian intellectuals and artists often want to shun their lower-class backgrounds, and aspire to be part of the "elite." I think the strong dislike of Kinkade's paintings stems - in part - from this impulse.

[Overstreet]

CrimsonLine, on 23 December 2010 - 11:14 AM, said:

Christian intellectuals and artists often want to shun their lower-class backgrounds, and aspire to be part of the "elite." I think the strong dislike of Kinkade's paintings stems - in part - from this impulse.

Perhaps. In my case it had more to do with being completely bored by the art all around me growing up; disgusted that the "art" embraced by the family friends and neighbors amounted to a collection of Precious Moments figurines; longing for pictures that told an interesting story; and having a hunch that artists should aspire to achieve more than my community's Three Words of Highest Praise: cute, darling, and highest of all, adorable.

Edited by Overstreet, 23 December 2010 - 11:47 AM.

[Overstreet]

Just as a P.S. to my previous post: Here's a video that pretty much sums up what was celebrated as high art when I was growing up. Somebody just sent it to me on Facebook.

[David Smedberg]

Holy Moly!, on 23 December 2010 - 08:34 AM, said:

Maybe we should start a thread entitled "Why Ugly Matters".

The most fundamental issue is that there is something hegemonic about the idealized world of this art. It is an act of violence against the populace. Just like Susan Boyle.

Dear Holy Moly,

I read your post and thought of the PostModern Twas The Night Before Christmas.

Quote

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While grand narratives of progress danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just performed gender before taking a nap.

...

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Hegemonically othered the objects below.
When, what to my binaried eyes should appear,
But a sleigh simulacrum, and virtual reindeer.

...

His aesthetic was queer, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes juxtaposed with ashes and soot.
A bundle of kitsch he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pastiche of red, white, and black.

I hope you enjoy as much as I did when I first read it.

[SDG]

David, that's awesome. I know some people I'll be sharing that with.

[CrimsonLine]

That. Is. AWESOME!

That. Is. AWESOME!

[Holy Moly!]

SDG, on 23 December 2010 - 09:50 AM, said:

Holy Moly!, on 23 December 2010 - 08:34 AM, said:

Just like Susan Boyle.

???

I have read critical assaults on Susan Boyle. I have never not been struck by their mean-spiritedness and/or perversity.

I think Susan Boyle seems to be a nice lady with a lovely voice. I think the records that she makes are terrible in a particularly ideologically loaded way. I don't think this is mean.

Hegemony isn't that heady a concept and it predates postmodernism. But that poem is pretty funny, nonetheless!