Over a Pepsi light

[Chris Saper]

It is impossible for me to read this thread and not comment. Seeing Thomas K. on 60 Minutes got my ranting attention. (Cynthia, call Ted Koppel for a specialty piece!)

However, I have to say that I actually saw a plein aire painting of his, a mission in California, (maybe Carmel?), and it was just beautiful. I thought, wow, he can also really paint.

Thomas Kinkade is in the category of Martha Stewart, an incredible marketing machine. He also thinks bigger than many of us ever will. So I think that it is not sensible to consider Mr. Kinkade's work as an apple in a field of oranges.

Evaluate it in its own context, and stop thinking that somehow "we" should be the arbiters of that context.

Original portrait art is a different animal entirely from the Kinkade print market. A thousand years of conversation will not convert a Kinkade print collector to go for original traditional portraiture any more than it would convince a passionate collector of original art to buy a Kinkade print. Stop trying, because it doesn't make sense.

Do you think I would love a spot on 60 Minutes? Of course! But competing with the Kinkade art print market, on its bases, will never get me there.