Guest Post by Morbo
If you ever look at magazines like “The Ladies Home Journal,” you’ve probably had the misfortune of seeing the incredibly bad art offered therein by Thomas Kinkade.
Kinkade calls himself the “painter of light.” His scenes usually feature something like a little cottage nestled in the woods surrounded by beams of light radiating down from a somewhat cloudy sky or perhaps a lighthouse perched precariously on a rocky shore.
Kinkade also makes figurines that light up and an entire array of Christmas kitsch that really has to be seen to be believed. Don’t think Kinkade produces this stuff himself. He creates prototypes that are then mass produced by his oompah loompahs; of course it sells like hotcakes. Kinkade is an evangelical Christian, and his work is very popular in that community.
Now comes word that Kinkade may be an artist of a different type as well — a con artist. The Los Angeles Times reports that the FBI is looking into his dealings. Reported the newspaper:
The FBI is investigating allegations that self-styled “Painter of Light” Thomas Kinkade and some of his top executives fraudulently induced investors to open galleries and then ruined them financially, former dealers contacted by federal agents said…. The ex-owners allege in arbitration claims that, among other things, the artist known for his dreamily luminous landscapes and street scenes used his Christian faith to persuade them to invest in the independently owned stores, which sell only Kinkade’s work.”
Several dealers lost their shirts.
As The Times reported:
Former gallery owners said that after they had invested tens of thousands of dollars each or more, the company’s practices and policies drove them out of business. They alleged they were stuck with unsalable limited-edition prints, forced to open additional stores in saturated markets and undercut by discounters that sold identical artworks at prices they were forbidden to match.
Kinkade denies any wrong-doing. But I should point out that these allegations are not new and that they come accompanied by claims that Kinkade’s personal behavior is not always Christ like.
In March the Times reported that former gallery owners “in sworn testimony and interviews” recounted “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.”
Then there’s this disturbing story: In the late 1990s, Kinkade was staying at a Disneyland Hotel near Anaheim, Calif., when he allegedly, um, “ritually marked” a statue of Winnie the Pooh.
“‘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.” (All I can say is, he’s lucky Tigger wasn’t there.)
I’m weary of stories like this. I’m weary of conservative Christians, who claim to be more moral than the rest of us, getting caught up in the same old scandals that plague much of the business community these days.
Consider:
* TV preacher Pat Robertson has had more shady business dealings than I can count.
* Robertson’s top lawyer, Jay Sekulow, uses a bevy of non-profit groups and sleazy fund-raising appeals to finance his high-flying lifestyle. He owns three homes and is paid so much money he is now listed as a contractor so that the figure does not have to appear on public documents.
* Jerry Falwell spent much of 2000 scaring people about the “Y2K” computer crash so they would buy his alarmist videos, books and canned goods from a company that was giving him kickbacks.
* Anti-gay minister Lou Sheldon worked to stop the spread of web-based gambling – because entrenched casino interests who feared the competition paid him to.
* Then there’s Ralph Reed.
It’s clear that the conservative Christian business community needs a little help. Perhaps they should hire a secular humanist to teach a course in business ethics.