In litigation and interviews with the Los Angeles Times, some former gallery owners depict Kinkade, 48, as a ruthless businessman who drove them to financial ruin at the same time he was fattening his business associates’ bank accounts and feathering his nest with tens of millions of dollars.
Yes, God may be “guiding his paintbrush”, but it would appear that Thomas Kinkade is just as greedy, vindictive, and piggish as anyone else with more money than sense. Of course, he has God on his side, so all he really needs to do is to appeal to the the narrow, the judgemental, and the willing to accept anything in the name of Jesus in order to be successful.
Kinkade’s art may be trite and simplistic, his themes soporific and kitschy, but when you make as much money as he does mass-producing the artificial and the soulless, who cares? Of course, by positioning himself as a Fundamentalist, he sets himself up to have his foibles and imperfections examined by those (like myself) who aren’t quite so forgiving. If there is one thing I can’t stand, it’s hypocrisy…and it would seem that Thomas Kinkade is a first-class, Grade A hypocrite.
Oh, yes…and let’s not forget that he’s a DUMB@$$….
Thomas Kinkade is famous for his luminous landscapes and street scenes, those dreamy, deliberately inspirational images he says have brought “God’s light” into people’s lives, even as they have made him one of America’s most collected artists.
A devout Christian who calls himself the “Painter of Light,” Kinkade trades heavily on his beliefs and says God has guided his brush - and his life - for the last 20 years.
Not to mention his bank account, eh?
“When I got saved, God became my art agent,” he said in a 2004 video biography, genteel in tone and rich in the themes of faith and family values that have helped win him legions of fans, albeit few among art critics.
But some former Kinkade employees, gallery operators and others contend that the Painter of Light has a decidedly dark side.
In litigation and interviews with the Los Angeles Times, some former gallery owners depict Kinkade, 48, as a ruthless businessman who drove them to financial ruin at the same time he was fattening his business associates’ bank accounts and feathering his nest with tens of millions of dollars.
Kinkade - whose solely owned Thomas Kinkade Co. is based in Morgan Hill, Calif. - denies these allegations.
Last month, however, a three-member panel of the American Arbitration Assn. ordered his company to pay $860,000 for defrauding the former owners of two failed Virginia galleries. That decision marks the first major legal setback for Kinkade, who won three previous arbitration claims. Five more are pending.
There is nothing inherently wrong with achieving financial success, of course. Hell, it’s the American Dream. When you market yourself as a “Christian” artist, however, that holds you up to greater scrutiny and higher standards whether you like it or not. After all, if Jesus were a businessman, don’t you think he would treat suppliers, employees, and customers with a high degree of dignity and respect? Should no less be expected of Kinkade, who has made his fortune off of portraying himself as a follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ?
It’s not just Kinkade’s business practices that have been called into question. Former gallery owners, ex-employees and others say his personal behavior also belies the wholesome image on which he’s built his empire.
In sworn testimony and interviews, they recount incidents in which an allegedly drunken Kinkade heckled illusionists Siegfried & Roy in Las Vegas, cursed a former employee’s wife who came to his aid when he fell off a barstool, and palmed a startled woman’s breasts at a signing party in South Bend, Ind.
And then there is Kinkade’s proclivity for “ritual territory marking,” as he called it, which allegedly manifested itself in the late 1990s outside the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.
“This one’s for you, Walt,” the artist quipped late one night as he urinated on a Winnie the Pooh figure, said Terry Sheppard, a former vice president for Kinkade’s company, in an interview.
Apparently, being a Christian is no guarantee that one is a decent human being, eh? Ah, well, as long as the sheeple who continue to throng to Kinkade’s galleries so they can empty their wallets keep drinking the Kool-Aid, Kinkade won’t have to worry about where his next Big Mac is coming from. He can laugh all the way to the bank. After all, this is America, and hypocrisy is certainly no barrier to making a killing. It’s just too bad that this is just another case of a DUMB@$$ portraying himself as a Christian while clearly not knowing the first things about his religion’s teachings.
