For those of you who don’t recognize the artist, that’s a Thomas Kinkade.  Just a random Kinkade that I pulled off of his website.

I hate Thomas Kinkade.  Well, I don’t hate the man.  That would be ludicrous, since I’ve never met him and don’t even know what he looks like, never mind have any idea of what his character is like.

I hate his art.  His paintings.  They are ugly.  They look like paint-by-number sets to me.  I can’t understand why they are so popular.  Why do so many people flock after them?  Why are there shrines and altars built in his honor in Christian bookstores?  He has been dubbed the “Painter of Light.”  But, honestly, his use of light is pedestrian and weird.  There is nothing wonderful about it.

Just for the record, I’ve always thought this about his paintings.  I thought this from the first painting I saw of his … way before he got so wildly popular.  I thought it was a cheap knock off of a “real” artist.  Or a paint-by-number kit.

Is it our culture?  I wondered that anew this morning as BlazingEwe and I looked at checks.  She needs to reorder checks.  I think she’s going to get frogs because they are fun and cute.  We were aghast at all the organizations seeking to raise conciousness with checks.  Even NORML has a check now.  But I thought, as we looked, how many articles have I read decrying the lack of reading these days and people think they are going to raise conciousness with a check?  No one will read it.  It’s an idea who’s time came and went back in the ’70s.  So we settle for cheap knock offs and raising conciousness by writing checks.  God knows we wouldn’t want to talk to anyone … we’ll just write a check and let it speak for us.  While we buy ugly art that we know is ugly, but since everyone else is gushing over it, it must be good … right?