Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Thomas Kinkade arrested for DUI

Bankruptcy, fraud and now a DUI...?? The "Painter of Light" has fallen to new lows. Will his adoring baptist teetotaler fans ever forgive him? I certainly hope not... In fact, they themselves shouldn't be forgiven for purchasing his badly painted nostalgic yearning for a warm, glowing past that never was...

But then again, if you look at his vomit inducing faith based website, he WAS a really good salesman... Even if it was snake oil...
Here is his arrest photo:










From the Orange County Register:
Thomas Kinkade, the self-described "Painter of Light," was arrested Friday night outside of Carmel on suspicion of drunk driving.
According to police reports and the Monterey Herald, Kinkade, 52, was stopped by a sheriff's deputy shortly after 9 p.m. because his 2006 Mercedes-Benz didn't have a front license plate. The deputy detected the smell of alcohol, and requested the assistance of a California Highway Patrol officer.
The CHP officer arrived and gave Kinkade a field sobriety test, CHP spokesman Robert Lehman said. During the test, Kinkade, a Carmel resident, "displayed signs of impairment to the officer," Lehman said.
Kinkade was arrested, then taken to Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, where his blood was taken to determine his blood alcohol content. He was booked into Monterey County Jail and released Saturday after posting bail.

Kinkade, one of the most collected artists in America, is known for his quaint landscapes that are widely reproduced and sometimes have religious symbolism embedded in the pictures. While praised by some as touching and sentimental, his work has been panned by art critics as schlocky and unoriginal. In fact, he primarily sells reproductions, sometimes touched up by assistants, and rarely sells original paintings.
In 2004, Cal State Fullerton's Grand Central Art Center and Main Art Gallery presented a large exhibition of Kinkade's work and the knicknacks his company has produced -- cups, dishes, calendars, lamps, puzzles, teddy bears, Christmas tree ornaments, even a La-Z-Boy reclining chair.
Five galleries in Orange County sell his work, most prominently the Village Gallery in Irvine (Irvine Spectrum), Laguna Beach and Santa Ana (MainPlace Mall). The other O.C. galleries that sell his work are Pierside Gallery in Huntington Beach and the Art Center Gallery in Westminster.
Rod and Cindi Dubois, a Mission Viejo couple, have spent more than $300,000 collecting Kinkades. The two were featured on a "60 Minutes" segment on Kinkade in July 2002.
However, Kinkade appears to have a dark side. He has been sued by former gallery owners who say they lost everything trying to sell his prints in their now-defunct stores. And a pair of stories published in the Los Angeles Times in 2006 recount incidents in which an allegedly drunk Kinkade heckled illusionists Siegfried and Roy in Las Vegas; cursed a former employee's wife who came to his aid when he fell off a barstool; and palmed a startled woman's breast at a signing party in Indiana.
In the late 1990s, he is reported to have urinated on a Winnie the Pooh figure at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. "This one's for you, Walt," he is reported to have said.
Kinkade's arrest occurred less than two weeks after one of his companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The petition by Kinkade's production company, Pacific Metro of Morgan Hill, Calif., was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Jose.

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