Charles Lewis Art - California

What Thomas Kincade Can Show Us About Art and Happiness

I dig Thomas Kincade. Maybe not for the reason you think. I met him once, many years ago in Carmel before he got famous. He is said to live somewhere nearby, in the Santa Cruz mountains of northern California, but I have no idea where. It’s a big place, easy to hide in. Deer outnumber people 100 to one.

My opinion of Thomas Kincade used to be just my personal impression of his art, which I don’t care for. It’s just not my thing. But some years ago I was in the home of an elderly relative who had several Kincade prints on her walls. One was hung by a corner that she passed myriad times a day going from the living room to the kitchen. This delightful aunt would stop by the print as she passed it and just let her gaze fall on it for a few seconds. She’d done this thousands of times.

“It gives me a warm feeling,” she explained. Doesn’t that say it all? She didn’t care if it was an original (obviously not), some fancy limited edition print or just a plain old cheap print – it gave her a warm feeling. Over and over.

Maybe you disparage Kincade’s paintings, or envy his success or try to learn from his marketing.  Maybe you dislike his ‘factory’ approach to his business. Doesn’t matter. What I had to face was the simple fact that his art was giving my aunt a ton of pleasure, every day, year after year. How can you top that? How many artists can say the same? Some artists only exist (as an artist) to probe the art world’s boundaries; maybe they’ll even be the next big thing! Most others simply struggle to get their mental images onto canvas or paper like I do.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Viewer pleasure isn’t the only guiding principle of art. But do you, mister or miz artist, provide non-stop pleasure to regular folks? Kincade provides it, by the boatload, to a ton of people who extend that warm and fuzzy feeling to their love of art in general. And that’s a great thing for the world.