Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Painter of Light, Marker of Territory

Thomas Kinkade has made quite a career for himself peddling juxtapositions of paint and canvas fit only for inclusion in the old Saturday Night Live commercial for the "Hotel-Motel Art Fair." According to this story in the LA Times, however, his business associates don't seem to have done as well and are going after him on fraud charges.

But enough about the litigation - how about drunken* heckling of Siegfried and Roy in Vegas? Relieving oneself on a statue of Pooh, one of a series of incidents of "ritual territory marking" (his term)? Uninvited hands-on aesthetic appreciation of a female admirer? There sure is a lot going on behind those cheesily glowing windows and doorways.

Sorry I can't give this the complete workup but I had to get this out there. No blog is too small to shirk such an opportunity for schadenfreude.

Hat tip to TBogg.

*OK, the article says "allegedly drunken" but mouthing off to a couple of guys in nominal control of tigers suggests a chemically lowered survival instinct of one kind or another.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I never heard of this guy. But I do not know art. What I do know is that this guy you got it from doesn't like the Powerline guys. This shows poorer judgment than pissing on Pooh.

Actually, Pollack behaved badly. Picasso huge jerk. Gaguin (that's Gaw Gwin)-jerk. Van Gogh, nut. Dali-nut/jerk (except very pro-monarchy). I think the evidence here supports that this artist Dave hates so much is really a great master.

Also, it seems to invest all your money in watercolors is not a good move.

I am suspicious that there is only one grope allegation. I mean unless the gropee is Dolly Parton who the heck is gonna grope just one person? You know its Aristotelian, action becomes habit which creates the man, who is then a serial groper.

Moreover, the only two men who ever went into painting for a reason other than scoring chicks were Hitler and Churchill. Also that gay guy whose painting Steve Martin collects. Hockey or Hockney. You know, nobody has a face, their ill-defined and hanging around in Los Angelos swimming pools. Anyway, those three are it. So an artist trying to grab groupies isn't even a news item. Guess what? I hear the Rolling Stones have pawed screaming blondes backstage too. Sorry to ruin your illusions.

I see no reason why heckling Sigfried & Roy is considered poor form. Until the guy got malled the whole country heckled them. Also, somebody should have Mastuh Clooney look into why de only have de White Tigers. Wicked Yankees I'm bett'n! Hooray for Hollywood!

Finally, its not like you have been hawking underappreciated luminous paintings in Lincoln Park. What the heck do you have schadenfruede for? In other words why all the glee on a report of some allegedly perfidious artist who, unlike all the other perfidious artists hawks stuff people actually buy? You missing Andrew Serrano or something?

JJV

Anonymous said...

I will only note, for the record, that I chose not to make any comment about the irony of pissing on Pooh.

JCC

Dave S. said...

JJV leaves much to ponder. Let me start by pooh-poohing (ha!) the "dislike of Powerline = bad judgment" assertion, which in my view is so much poo-poo.

I do not sympathize with anyone who sank their life savings into this. As JJV pointed out in a phone conversation, "How do these people get life savings in the first place?"

I defer to JJV's elucidation of Aristotelian logic, observing only that one of the original drafts Descartes considered was "I grope, therefore I am."

What I failed to point out in my admittedly hasty post (but which is included in the article) was that Kinkade has worn his version of Christian righteousness on his sleeve. In retrospect that would almost certainly indicate hidden groping-type behavior.

Finally, JJV's observation as to the actual target of the heckling is correct. Had he yelled out something along the lines of "Ya shtoopid tigersh, whaddaya ya know anyhow?!" a mauling would almost be obligatory.

As for JCC, his restraint is noted and appreciated.

Mike said...

On a different topic, according to the article, Kinkade has said that "When I got saved, God became my art agent."

I doubt He really has any inroads into the art community. I'm sure Infinite Wisdom has got to count for something, but will that really get you a gallery show?

And, shit, what kind of commission are we talking here? Even non-artists have to tithe 10%. Sounds like a scam to me.

Dave S. said...

I heard that God got Michelangelo the Sistine Chapel gig, but only told him about the ceiling while telling the Pope that M would do the back wall too. M was pissed and painted all the women chunky as payback.