shopping mall schlock

If you have been to a shopping mall in the US you've probably seen the work of Thomas Kinkade. There is a store in the Burlington Mall that I've never dared enter but at the entrance there is a fake fireplace and a carboard incarnation of Kinkade to entice you into his non-challenging pastel world. It's the ugliest crap I've seen since my sister started collecting the precious moments atrocities inspired by the infamous sad puppy.

He is, supposedly, "Americas most collected artist". I don't know a single person who owns, collects or displays this stuff in their home. I'd consider buying it for people I didn't like but it's really expensive crap that just looks cheap. I mean, this is the kind of wall covering you see in Motel 6, trailer parks and white trash movies so why are people paying $400 and up for these, these, crimes against art?

Kinkaid, not happy with just polluting interior landscapes of middle-class america, has just released a new novel Cape Light. I'll bet you'll never guess who did the jacket artwork. A "modern-day Normal Rockwell"?! Right, and I'm a new age Mother Theresa. The reviews are fun reading though :)

17 Mar 2002 at 23:30, Helsinki