It was a certain morbid curiosity that drew us, two artists and me, to the Westin Galleria one afternoon in late March to witness a personal appearance by California painter Thomas Kinkade, variously known as America's most collected artist, the only artist traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and the Painter of Light . Yet until two days before, I had never heard of the guy. Thomas Kinkade makes the ultimate Republican paintings. Unlike Norman Rockwell, to whom Kinkade compares himself, he depicts the world as he would like it to be rather than as it is, steeping everything in a pickling fluid of hazy golden light. His gardens bloom lavishly.
Trellises dangle above clear rivers, dew-coated stone bridges span twinkling streams.
Mountains, untrammeled by timber companies or pollutants, rise in salute of America the Beautiful in all its God-fearing glory. Which is not to say that his work appeals only to Christians. It didn't take much for Kinkade to sustain his audience's conviction that he's the real thing. I was surprised she didn't also give a prize to the person who owned the most Kinkades, although the artist did ask for a show of hands on that issue too. Yet it also humbled me.