How do you feel about fine artists like Thomas Kincaid who have commercialized their art -- to an art, and are making millions off of those printed images, not to mention most of his work is not produced by him anymore but by other people who work for him to reporduced the images he wants?

Well I feel like he was given a wonderful gift by God. It is so powerful too, he used it to the full extent of his ability. He is no doubt a master painter and his talent with delegating his comertalized art is fabulous. I say Go For It! Aren’t we all looking to become known and have are art sought after by the many. I want his talent for being business savvy as well as a master painter/artist. I think it is unrealistic to believe a master painter like he that has such a large audience would be able to continue on painting with out making mass prints. Plus now even the everyday "Jo Blow" can aford to have a lovly painting done by him.

Sorry Chasity, I really can't disagree more. I think copies only cheapen the importance of originals. Yes, we have many copies of art being done now, but Kincaid had taken copies to a new level, by even hiring other artists to do his canvases for him, and marketing his images on everything from mouse pads to wind catchers.

I only consider him a large marketing machine, producing what he considers art, not for the art, only for the money. Art has nothing to do with it now.

Try these links:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0036Pc&tag=

http://www.worldmagblog.com/blog/archives/021232.html

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=005OCh&tag=

I too have a problem with mass production, however I didn't know that he had others doing his art for him at this point under his name. Interesting. I was able to contact him at one point about a book that he had co-authered with someone that is out of print, wondering about how to get it. His response was "you will just have to search for it". You would think that as one artist to another, one who had struggled would be a little more helpful. But I guess he at this point may have been suspicious of people.

And to be honest who wouldn't be a little jealous of his success as an artist, I'll admit that.

I think that is probably who he really is. NO excuses!

I remeber Thomas when I was Creative Director at Southwest Art Magazine. At that time he was trying to work a contract with Somerset House who printed Larry Dyke and G. Harvey. Randy Best was the owner at that time and Mr. Kincaid was pretty obnoxious to our staff at SW Art. I don' begrudge him success but the quality of his later work was appalling.

On the point of reproductions, the amount of signed and numbered prints produced in the 70,s 80,s and early 90,s was obscene. Now, giclees are the hot thing. If a person can't afford an orignial, they aren't looking very hard. But in the art business you have a "herd" mentality i.e. the Kincaid "success".

Nothing beats hard work, ethical galleries, and true objective non-hype marketing. Your track record on how a person handles their art career follows like your driving record.

May everyone paint today, enjoy the creative process.