Some things are just
less than satisfying. Namely, Thomas Kinkade. When pondering my aesthetic
influences I can imagine how a great many artists have impacted my art and yet
there is something that tells me those are false introspections. Did Francis
Bacon’s Figure with Meat truly change the way I visualize great art? I
like to think so. But, perhaps not. Perhaps it was more of a confirmation of
what I wanted to see. There’s something wonderfully grotesque, and thereby
human, about Bacon’s art that makes me want to like it. That makes me want to
lean forward from my chair and stare at the pixelated copies of his art on my
computer screen. There’s an intensity to it, there something alive in there.
The coagulating carcasses, the brutally carved face, and the empty walls. They
reflect a delightfully existential fate of damnation. I would have never imagined
that a painting based on moralistic and decadent Catholic images would appeal
to me so much. But there it is. However,
its appeal wouldn't be as much as it is if I did not have something to compare
it to. That is, the vacuous ‘art’ of Thomas Kinkade.
Francis Bacon’s art may
be ugly but it’s sincere. Louis C.K.’s stand up may be vulgar but it’s sincere.
Trent Reznor’s music may sound like dissonance but it's sincere. As such
I appreciate them all. That cannot be said of Mr. Kinkade’s work, though. It’s
obvious, you see. You do see it, don’t you? You must, because his work is made
so you can. He wants to tickle your emotions, or what he imagines your emotions
should be. He wants you to feel a longing for an impossible, contrived
existence. For despite those bucolic surroundings there is something oddly
empty about the world he depicts. They are deprived of any humanity and heart. They
lack life and there is no reality. Of course one need not depict a realistic
environment for it to be of worth, but the metaphorical implication of whatever
is there should at least ring true. But for Kinkade it doesn't. Instead,
Kinkade uses sentimentality to shield his paintings from meaning. Properly put, his paintings are insincere
efforts to pander to an audience.
Through his drivel,
Kinkade has deeply influenced the way I understand beauty and meaning. Nothing
was beautiful that didn't have meaning. Not to me, at least. Beauty is often
found in the raw. In the unaffected and authentic. This does not mean art must
never be calculated. I doubt many works, whether a stand-up routine or
photograph, have been created without revision. But the result must be genuine
in order for there to be any meaning or beauty in it.
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