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Painter of Light Also Pee-er On Pooh
Posted by Pile
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 Multi-millionaire kitsch-painter, Thomas Kinkade, whose galleries seem to reproduce like fetid rats in tourist areas, is under fire from ex-employees and business associates over supposedly un-God-like behavior. The man who claims God controls his paintbrush, and who has successfully exploited lots of religious folks via his warm-and-fuzzy distorted images of reality, seems to have a sordid past of groping women, defrauding business associates, and even urinating on Disney characters. |
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Yes, last month, a three-member panel of the American Arbitration Assn. ordered Kinkade's company to pay $860,000 for defrauding the former owners of two failed Virginia galleries. Witnesses recounted incidents in which an allegedly drunken Kinkade heckled illusionists Siegfried & Roy in Las Vegas, cursed a former employee's wife who came to his aid when he fell off a barstool, and grabbed a startled woman's breasts at a signing party.
Former art dealers allege that the artist used his faith--and manipulated theirs--to induce them to invest in Thomas Kinkade Signature Galleries, independently owned stores licensed to deal exclusively in his work. They also say that he sought to devalue the company before buying it back two years ago for $32.7 million, renaming it Thomas Kinkade Co. While his gallery owners went bankrupt, lost their marriages and their life savings, Kincade , Kinkade earned $53 million for his work from 1997 through May 2005.
Former employees said they often went with Kinkade to strip clubs and bars, where he frequently became intoxicated and out of control.
"Thom would be fine, he would be drinking, and then all of a sudden, you couldn't tell where the boundary was," one said. "And then he became very incoherent, and he would start cussing and doing a lot of weird stuff."
One witness recounted that about six years ago the artist was so intoxicated during a performance by Siegfried & Roy in Las Vegas that people seated nearby moved away from him.
"I think it was Roy or Siegfried or whatever had a codpiece in his leotards," Dandois testified. "And so when the show started, Thom just started yelling, 'Codpiece, codpiece,' and had to be quieted."
In an interview, former gallery owner Sheppard, who often accompanied Kinkade on the road, recounted a trip to Orange County in the late 1990s for the artist's appearance on the "Hour of Power" television show at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove. On the eve of the broadcast, Sheppard said, he and Kinkade returned to the Disneyland Hotel after a night of heavy drinking. As they walked to their rooms, according to Sheppard and another person who was there, Kinkade veered toward a nearby figure of a Disney character.
"Thom wanders over to Winnie the Pooh and decides to 'mark his territory,' " Sheppard stated.
In a deposition, the artist alluded to his practice of urinating outdoors, saying he "grew up in the country" where it was common. When pressed about allegedly relieving himself in a hotel elevator in Las Vegas, Kinkade said it might have happened.
"There may have been some ritual territory marking going on, but I don't recall it," he said.
Kinkade testified in the arbitration case that he had never claimed to be perfect.
"Book of Ecclesiastes says enjoy yourself, have a glass of wine, for this is God's will for you," he said. "It's never consistent with God's will that we behave in a sinful way; however, God also loves us and accepts us and understands that at times we have our failings."
And if God didn't want us to pee on Winnie-the-Pooh, he wouldn't have made him that inviting golden color. |
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