Thomas Kinkade...Artist?

Kinkade, the painter of light, is he foe or friend to the everyday artist. That question is ultimately of opinion as an artist but an absolute friend to a businessman. Any profits made for an idea is successful. In this class we are learning that not all art is made on canvass or print, that it can be film, buildings, photographs and many other artistic avenues. There are many art pieces that create higher profits than others based on marketability. It is the marketing that creates knowledge to enhance desire and value. Many people saw value in his ideas but did they know what they were really buying? If not than there could be legal issue at hand that I am not qualified to speak about but his artistic idea worked for him and the many people that saw it as art. As his marketing went up and the paintings weren’t completed by his hand then the value of his painting decreases because that situation declined the value. An art piece is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. When a movie comes out, which is another way to express art, that movie is marketed to obtain knowledge of that movie and to create value for people to go see it. If the movie is successful than profits come in but only if the viewer sees value in that movie, not only to spend money to see it but time as well. Cartoon figures are another art piece; think about the many of time that a Spiderman movie came out or a Batman figurine was made, people still bought them without originality because they saw value in it. I guess what I am trying to say is that Mr. Kinkade is not the only artist that knew how to market an artistic idea and was successful. Ansell Adam has made quite the name for himself as well; he is an artist with the camera. He didn’t touch any of his pictures but he was able to mass produce them and get the same results as Kinkade.

For a person to be an artist I would like to see quality and time put into a piece that creates a slight emotional feeling from me. I am not opposed to Kinkade’s work but I wouldn’t buy one myself. I would need the painting to look different from each other and it is an original of original thinking. I don’t want to walk into a neighbor’s house and find the same painting.