# Why does everyone hate Thomas Kinkaide? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 27, 2009, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592 "2009-02-27T01:05:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jettboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/21 "2009-02-27T02:50:07Z")
Thomas Kincaide is a terrible artist. In the technical sense, he’s not bad; easily as good as any 2nd year art student. Conceptually, his work is pure dreck; unoriginal, sentimental, fluffy, engineered post-card crap. “Painter of Light”?! Pleeeease. Kincaide’s true genius is marketing. His marketing people have taken nondescript schlock art and made it as big as sliced bread. Thomas Kincaide is a corporation, not an artist. He’s the McDonalds of art; cheap, inferior, processed shit that is available _everywhere_ and designed to appeal to the masses in a way that _real_ art can’t (or won’t). As a working artist, who almost certainly doesn’t have a print hanging in your Grandma’s kitchen or a calendar available at the Bible Store, I daydream of winning the lottery and purchasing an original Thomas Kincaide painting so I can wipe my ass with it. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/22 "2009-02-27T02:54:51Z")
> [@Terrifel](#): > > C’mon; get happy. > [@Dazzling\_White\_Diamonds](#): > > Not unless someone’s bringin’ a whole lotta lovin’… Isn’t that what life is made of? 😃 But seriously…I think if Kincaid had been born 170 years ago, he would have fit right in with the likes of Albert Bierstadt. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/23 "2009-02-27T03:18:31Z")
> [@Dazzling\_White\_Diamonds](#): > > Not unless someone’s bringin’ a whole lotta lovin’… [Stop, and look around; somebody wants to love you!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np9d5rASeFU#t=5m47s) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Dazzling\_White\_Diamonds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/41988e/32.png) [@Dazzling\_White\_Diamonds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dazzling_White_Diamonds)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/24 "2009-02-27T03:38:38Z")
> [@Terrifel](#): > > [Stop, and look around; somebody wants to love you!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np9d5rASeFU#t=5m47s) 😉 Gah! The earworm… how it _ **buuuuurns** _! [QUOTE=blondebear] Isn’t that what life is made of? [/QUOTE] I think I love you. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/25 "2009-02-27T03:39:25Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > But seriously…I think if Kincaid had been born 170 years ago, he would have fit right in with the likes of Albert Bierstadt. :dubious: [Albert Bierstadt.](http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&q=albert+bierstadt&btnG=Search+Images) [Thomas Kinkade.](http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&q=thomas+kinkade&btnG=Search+Images) Notice how even Bierstadt’s paintings of erupting volcanoes are not as loud as Kinkade’s cottages. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/26 "2009-02-27T03:50:39Z")
You do have to understand, BTW, that Thomas Kinkade is a _company_. It literally talks about [Kinkade as a brand name](http://www.thomaskinkadecompany.com/default.asp?s=n), like Kleenex or Sani-Flush. Kinkade is interested in commerce, not art. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/27 "2009-02-27T03:51:01Z")
> [@Jettboy](#): > > Thomas Kincaide is a terrible artist. In the technical sense, he’s not bad; easily as good as any 2nd year art student. Conceptually, his work is pure dreck; unoriginal, sentimental, fluffy, engineered post-card crap. “Painter of Light”?! Pleeeease. > > Kincaide’s true genius is marketing. His marketing people have taken nondescript schlock art and made it as big as sliced bread. Thomas Kincaide is a corporation, not an artist. He’s the McDonalds of art; cheap, inferior, processed shit that is available _everywhere_ and designed to appeal to the masses in a way that _real_ art can’t (or won’t). > > As a working artist, who almost certainly doesn’t have a print hanging in your Grandma’s kitchen or a calendar available at the Bible Store, I daydream of winning the lottery and purchasing an original Thomas Kincaide painting so I can wipe my ass with it. In other words, Kincaide is hated because other artists who think (rightly or wrongly) that they’re much better than he is are insanely jealous of his immense success. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/28 "2009-02-27T03:54:22Z")
> [@Jettboy](#): > > Thomas Kincaide is a terrible artist. In the technical sense, he’s not bad; easily as good as any 2nd year art student. Conceptually, his work is pure dreck; unoriginal, sentimental, fluffy, engineered post-card crap. “Painter of Light”?! Pleeeease. Sister Wendy forgive me, this makes two times I have ‘defended’ Kincaide on these boards, but, wouldn’t you admit that he did have a talent at painting that glow of light? Even if the effect was not what one would call high art? ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/29 "2009-02-27T04:05:27Z")
I love Thomas Kincaide. No, not the paintings, I tend more towards Magritte or Ivan Albright myself. What I love is that his ruthless business practices and his bizarre and selfish personal life is exactly to my mind a living, breathing performance artistic rendering of Christian mega-churches. The guy is at once portraying a cheap and wholly unbelievable portrait of an imaginary land that never existed, while at the same time acting like Caligula on methamphetamines. Fucking brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/30 "2009-02-27T04:15:18Z")
One needs to walk into a Kincade franchise store and see the paintings side by side and all over to understand that “warm glow” does not good art make. One planted above the entry at an old lady’s house is quaint. More than one is a Scooby Doo marathon. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/31 "2009-02-27T04:16:18Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > More than one is a Scooby Doo marathon. You know, Scooby Doo is about two seconds from becoming SDMB meme territory. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/32 "2009-02-27T04:20:04Z")
Kinkade paints [NASCAR](http://www.arizonakinkade.com/Gallery/Thunder_Road.jpg). 'Nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/33 "2009-02-27T04:26:34Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > My father-in-law liked jigsaw puzzles from Kinkade’s art. That may be their best form. They sure fit in the fireplace better that way. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/34 "2009-02-27T04:46:20Z")
> [@Terrifel](#): > > :dubious: > > [Albert Bierstadt.](http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&q=albert+bierstadt&btnG=Search+Images) > > [Thomas Kinkade.](http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&q=thomas+kinkade&btnG=Search+Images) > > Notice how even Bierstadt’s paintings of erupting volcanoes are not as loud as Kinkade’s cottages. Oh, I agree. I wouldn’t say that Kincaid was Bierstadt’s equal, but they employ the same techniques to attract an audience. From the wiki entry on Albert B: > [@](#): > > The romanticism evident in his choices of subject and in his use of light was felt to be excessive by contemporary critics. His paintings emphasized atmospheric elements like fog, clouds and mist to accentuate and complement the feel of his work. Bierstadt sometimes changed details of the landscape to inspire awe. The colors he used are also not always true. He painted what he believed was the way things should be: water is ultramarine, vegetation is lush and green, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/35 "2009-02-27T05:04:12Z")
He also holds the distinction of being the most famous artist ever to [publicly pee on Winnie the Pooh](http://www.correntewire.com/christianist_painter_kinkade_urinates_on_winnie_the_pooh_figure_while_drunk). ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/36 "2009-02-27T05:09:46Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > He also holds the distinction of being the most famous artist ever to [publicly pee on Winnie the Pooh](http://www.correntewire.com/christianist_painter_kinkade_urinates_on_winnie_the_pooh_figure_while_drunk). So far. I’m watching you Jeff Koons. ---
**Author:** ![Prox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/da6949/32.png) [@Prox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prox)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/37 "2009-02-27T05:23:10Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Kinkade paints [NASCAR](http://www.arizonakinkade.com/Gallery/Thunder_Road.jpg). So, a painting of jets bombing a racetrack. I guess his pictures aren’t all bad. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/38 "2009-02-27T05:38:01Z")
I hate TK because he has the apparent recent imagination of a 3rd grader. His paintings are repetitive, he overcharges for prints with someone else’s daubs on them, and he insults my idea of Christian honesty. He’s a horrible artist. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/39 "2009-02-27T05:44:31Z")
All of a sudden I’m remembering this episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent when a wealthy businessman and his wife are murdered in their home. After deciding that their druggie son was probably framed, Logan and Wheeler start looking at a seemingly kindly family friend. Wallace Cantor is an artist who was looking to sell franchises in his work. A couple who signed up to buy one were gushing about the wholesome small-town values his work depicted. I’m starting to get an eerie sense of familiarity… ---
**Author:** ![Clivas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@Clivas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clivas)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592/40 "2009-02-27T05:45:25Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Kinkade paints [NASCAR](http://www.arizonakinkade.com/Gallery/Thunder_Road.jpg). > > 'Nuff said. Well it’s quite obvious he knows nothing about his subjects. There are cars pitting on the first lap, the fly by is supposed to happen at the end of the national anthem, not during the green flag start, _and_ there isn’t a single shirtless hairy back in the crowd. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-hate-thomas-kinkaide/487592.md?page=3)