# The urinator of light strikes again. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 15, 2006, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-urinator-of-light-strikes-again/356889 "2006-05-15T20:48:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-urinator-of-light-strikes-again/356889/81 "2006-05-17T00:44:37Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > **OneCentStamp** -you are correct. I was speaking up FOR Rockwell. I think that particular piece is extremely compelling. Rockwell wasn’t just a hack, and that’s another reason why Kinkade pisses me off. He has stated in the past that he’s Rockwell’s Heir. No, no he’s not. Not at all. Looking over Kinkade’s site, it seems to me that the two could hardly be more different in subject matter. While both are sentimental, Kinkade paints almost nothing but buildings and landscapes, while Rockwell painted mostly people. Rockwell is precise, where Kincade is vague. Though he is sentimental and sometimes cheesy, I actually rather like Rockwell. There’s a certain sincerity to Rockwell that seems to be lacking in Kincade. I think that he may well be regarded one hundred years from now something like Currier and Ives are today. I can’t see that happening with Kinkade - his paintings are not really evocative of a time or any real place. They are utterly generic. And I _love_ “Dogs Playing Poker,” in all it’s variants. I would _much_ rather see an exhibition of that than Kinkade. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-urinator-of-light-strikes-again/356889/82 "2006-05-17T00:50:03Z")
The work of Kinkade (for whom I actually worked for a week or two back in 2000) strikes me as generic, also. Honestly, to me it’s like the art version of Budweiser: incredibly average so that it attracts average. When I did drink, I thought that Budweiser was lousy beer and preferred the beers with more taste, more body, more soul, if you will. Same thing applies to Kinkade: I like some art, but don’t particularly like Kinkade’s. I can see, though, how many people can like it. As mentioned upthread, art is in the eye of the beholder. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-urinator-of-light-strikes-again/356889/83 "2006-05-17T05:40:34Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I do get sick of when someone expresses an opinion on art, some bozo has to come along and shout “elitist!” Yeah, must be because the observer wants to pump himself up, and not because the art sucks. I was specific in what I said was elitist, and it was not expressing an opinion on art. Your opinions on art may be well founded, even true, it was the matter of opinions on the opinions of people you don’t know that I find elitist. I never saw the name of the artist under discussion, nor even a photo of his art before this thread. I doubt that I will ever see them again. I find them insipid, and uninteresting, as far as I was willing to look. But I have no opinion on the opinions of people who like the art. Not everyone has to be pleased with what pleases me to have valid opinions. I don’t care for the works of a lot of artists who are quite famous, and very highly regarded. It is taste, quite specifically my taste that determines what I find pleasing in art. I don’t need the approval of anyone on that matter. And I think that people who make that sort of sweeping judgement are elitists. Tris ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-urinator-of-light-strikes-again/356889/84 "2006-05-17T05:55:05Z")
Thanks trisk, it was really starting to bother me that so many fucking people thought I was defending kincade. I thought I was pretty clear. Its also wierd how this became a referendum (yeah exci I know I probably misspelled it) on kincade and everyone ignored the OP which was a dig at people who like him. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-urinator-of-light-strikes-again/356889/85 "2006-05-17T06:22:23Z")
> [@](#): > > COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – Fans of Thomas Kinkade’s sentimental paintings soon will be able to do more than hang them on the wall. They could hang them on the wall of a house designed to look exactly like one of Kinkade’s paintings. What? :wally 3D… I mean Puzz 3d was not good enough?: For more than a year, fans already could do more than hang them on the wall: [http://www.edbydesign.com/books/B000065AEH.html](http://www.edbydesign.com/books/B000065AEH.html) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-urinator-of-light-strikes-again/356889/86 "2006-05-17T14:37:47Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > GodDAMN you. Hee hee hee. Hey, us Canadians are nothing if not generous. We’re gladly sharing Celine Dion, Avril Lavigne, and Nickelback with you - why not Trisha, too? ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-urinator-of-light-strikes-again/356889/87 "2006-05-17T17:49:44Z")
> [@beagledave](#): > > I did take solace in last night’s Law & Order: CI, though. As I mentioned in a CS thread, the episode featured a “bad guy” by the name of “Wallace Kanter” You know, there was a reason I didn’t open that thread in CS. I hadn’t seen the damned episode yet. Thanks for the unboxed spoilers in a Pit thread. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-urinator-of-light-strikes-again/356889/88 "2006-05-17T18:07:38Z")
> [@neutron star](#): > > You know, there was a reason I didn’t open that thread in CS. I hadn’t seen the damned episode yet. Thanks for the unboxed spoilers in a Pit thread. :mad: Huh? Where’s the spoilage? It’s _Law & Order: Criminal Intent_, not an Agatha Christie whodunnit; the “bad guy” is identified at the outset. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-urinator-of-light-strikes-again/356889/89 "2006-05-17T19:59:31Z")
Not in that episode, he wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-urinator-of-light-strikes-again/356889/90 "2006-05-18T01:04:08Z")
> [@dre2xl](#): > > One time I read a posting (not on this message board) that showed a Kinkade picture and pointed out all the different sources of light: from the ground, from the top of the trees, radiating from the flowers, and so on. I’ve never stopped noticing that about his paintings since. > > Sure, he has technical skills when painting flowers and cottages, but these are comparatively easy to paint. You can give a flower just about any shape & color you want and it’ll still be a recognizable flower. Have you ever seen one of his paintings containing living people or creatures? There’s a reason why he doesn’t push them. > > On top of that, his paintings make zero sense. A tiny little wood cottage would collapse under all that snow. Trees don’t bend down like they do under heavy snow. Houses built 2 feet from a river. His rivers tend to look like the Exxon-Valdez sprung a leak in them, all that oily sheen. Ad infinitum. > > I’ve got a very pretty flowery landscape over my fireplace, with a huge gilt frame. It has a Kinkade feel to it, so I have no room to condemn people for buying starving-artist mall pieces, but at least it’s painted _right_. OK, I am a firm believer that his work is crap, but I do not agree with you as to why. Paintings do not have to be photorealistic to be _right_. That is one of the wonderful benefits of painting over photography, that you can completely remake reality. If he wants it to be a world of glowing light, that could be great. If he wants his trees to hold up 4.5 tons of snow, that could be fine and maybe even mean something. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. (If you think there is, then I suggest you avoid cubism like the plague.) My problem is that he uses these techniques to create generic crap. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-urinator-of-light-strikes-again/356889/91 "2006-05-18T12:51:24Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > What? :wally 3D… I mean Puzz 3d was not good enough?: > > For more than a year, fans already could do more than hang them on the wall: > [http://www.edbydesign.com/books/B000065AEH.html](http://www.edbydesign.com/books/B000065AEH.html) Or stare at it for weeks while crafting: > **[LoveCrafts | Knitting, crochet, craft supplies & inspiration](https://www.lovecrafts.com/en-gb/)** > > Feel the joy of making! Shop craft supplies, yarn and free patterns at LoveCrafts. Knitting, crochet, embroidery, sewing, quilting and tons of inspiration. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-urinator-of-light-strikes-again/356889/92 "2006-05-18T16:14:10Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > Or stare at it for weeks while crafting: > > [LoveCrafts | Knitting, crochet, craft supplies & inspiration](http://www.sewandso.co.uk/ran1747-0.html) I’m not sure if it’s healthy, but the bit on that page that says: > [@](#): > > Holiday Gathering > **Usually dispatched within 24 hours.** …conjures up images of the Charles Addams cartoon showing carolers being received by his eponymous Family. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-urinator-of-light-strikes-again/356889.md?page=4)