From: Carl Weese (cweese@earthlink.net)
Date: 01/05/03-11:50:58 AM Z
Shannon,
For me the trouble is that Kinkade's pseudo-nostalgic fantasies have no more
to do with rural life that John Wayne Westerns had to do with the history of
American expansion across the continent. Painters who make it into the
Cowboy Artists Hall of Fame (in Oklahoma) sell their paintings for prices
that make Kinkade sound free--literally 100K and more for work by living
artists--and the main proviso is that the pictures must mirror the fantasy
Wild West, not what really happened.
As another aside, the most amazing thing about his marketing is that Kinkade
isn't selling paintings at all. The paintings are locked in a vault and no
one is even allowed to view them. What's sold are "limited edition"
reproductions from the paintings. Believe it or not, for an extra fee, you
can have a bit of hand "highlighting" done on the reproduction--not by
Kinkade himself, but by one of a bevy of assistants who travel around to the
various mall stores to offer this service.
Marketing? Wow!
Kitsch? And How!
---Carl
> Thus we have Thomas Kinkade. I have to admire a person who can make a
> living, indeed a very good living, making pictures that people actually want
> to buy. Also, I admire somebody who can thumb his nose completely at the
> art establishment. I wouldn't want to make a painting exactly like his, but
> I might want to make a photograph sort of like that.
>
> --shannon
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