Wow was this an interesting blurb to read about! I never knew all this information about Thomas Kinkade! Believe it or not, I didn't even know he was still alive! I'm not sure how naive that statement is, but I'm going to go out on a limb to say it is probably pretty dumb. I never had any inkling of knowledge that Thomas Kinkade was being investigated over cheating people out of their investment money, trying so hard to make a profit off his prints, or, probably most important, using Christianity as an excuse to lure people into spending money on his paintings because of the connection they had with the paintings and their religion. I could see how some would consider his work as "chocolate box art", because some of his works of art do look like they belong on that $7.99 rip-off version of See's Candies.
Also, what is going on with him not even touching some of his works of art, and then selling them for extreme amounts of money with his famous signature on the bottom!!???? Is this what artistry has turned to? Paying other people to make pieces of art, signing your name at the bottom, and giving them to the highest bidder? Because last time I checked that sounds strangely similar to fraud!
I went to the Art Show today in Auburn and talked with a few of the artists about their works of art. Whether it is ceramics, photography, using Photoshop to create images, or using materials such as pastels, there is one thing all these artists seem to have in common: they all love what they do. While they obviously need money to live, they truly love their work and obtain real joy in being artists. This common theme was very easy to see even just by looking at the artists. To them, it is not about the money they make through their work, but about the enjoyment they get when working on and finishing a piece of artwork. So this brings me to my next question: why in the world would Thomas Kinkade stop selling original paintings just because sales of his prints were declining? Is it really about the money? Surely it cannot be that he needed to focus his attention on doing things to make money, because he is worth around $53 million. I doubt his halt in selling original paintings had anything to do with "necessary financial gain", or, more simply put, money to live.
Onto the next point: people have been investing their money into Thomas Kinkade art galleries with the false thoughts of investing in something that would bring them closer to God and Christianity, especially with Kinkade's so-called "beliefs". And then he has the nerve to deliberately sell his same paintings that are in the galleries that are being funded by these trusted people at venues for cheaper prices!!! How could he hoodwink and manipulate these people out of thousands and thousands of dollars and not even care? Obviously he is a different person than he pretends to be because he also shows a different side of himself when he is drunk. What's that old saying? It is something to the fact that someone's true nature comes out once they have had a few drinks--their honest personality shines through, or, in his case, forces its way out of him.
To sum up this outraged blog entry, I believe that Thomas Kinkade is a shrewd capitalist who has mastered the "art" of money making by manipulating and deceiving many people by pronouncing false beliefs and giving people false hopes all in a ploy to take their money away from them.
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I think the reason he's stopped selling his originals is because he can do just fine selling reproductions and licensing images. Perhaps, he's wants to put a few in the vault as a retirement investiment or perhaps he plans to leave them to his children or his children's children. If you in the business of selling reproductions, why not save the originals for a rainy day. It's just good fiscal planning.
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