Kinkade, Thomas

views updated

Thomas Kinkade

Personal

Born 1958, in Sacramento, CA; mother's name Marianne (a secretary); married 1982; wife's name Nanette; children: Merritt, Chandler, Windsor, Everett. Education: Attended University of California, Berkeley, and Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, 1976-80.

Addresses

Office— c/o Thomas Kinkade Company, 900 Lightpost Way, Morgan Hill, CA 95037.

Career

Freelance artist; background painter for animated film Fire and Ice. Cofounder, Lightpost Publishing (later Media Arts Group, Inc., now Thomas Kinkade Company; distributor of artwork and collectibles). Founder Thomas Kinkade Foundation (charitable organization).

Awards, Honors

National Association of Limited Edition Dealers (NALED), Artist of the Year, 1994, 2004, Graphic Artist of the Year, 1995-99, 2001-04, Lithograph of the Year, 1996, and Print of the Year, 1997-98; Collector Editions Award of Excellence; charter inductee, Bradford International Hall of Fame; named official artist of National Parks Collector's Print; Commander-in-Chief Award, Veterans of Foreign Wars, 1997; inducted into U.S. Art Hall of Fame, 1999; inducted into California Tourism Hall of Fame, 2002; selected to commemorate Olympic Winter Games and World Series, 2002; named Most Award-winning Artist in the Past 25 Years, NALED, 2004; Eugene Freedman Humanitarian Award, NALED, 2004.

Writings

ILLUSTRATOR

Selwyn Hughes, Every Day Light: Daily Inspirations, Broadman and Holman (Nashville, TN), 1998.

Douglas Kaine McKelvey, A Child's Christmas at St. Nicholas Circle, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1999.

A Child's Garden of Verses: A Collection of Scriptures, Prayers and Poems, compiled by June Ford, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1999.

A Child's Garden of Prayers: A Collection of Classic Prayers and Timeless Blessings, compiled by Tama Fortner, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 2000.

OTHER

(With James Gurney) The Artist's Guide to Sketching, Watson-Guptill (New York, NY), 1982.

Thomas Kinkade: Paintings of Radiant Light, Abbeville Press (New York, NY), 1995.

Simpler Times, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 1996.

(With Patrick Kinkade) Chasing the Horizon: Our Adventures through the British Isles and France, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 1997.

Romantic Hideaways, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 1997.

Beyond the Garden Gate, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 1997.

I'll Be Home for Christmas, compiled by Anne Christian Buchanan, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 1997.

Spirit of America, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1998.

Glory of Creation, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 1998.

Home Is Where the Heart Is, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 1998.

Hometown Memories, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 1998.

Seasons of Light, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 1998.

(With Calvin Miller) With Wings like Eagles, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1998.

(With Anne Christian Buchanan and Debra Klingsporn) Christ, the Light of the World: A Devotional, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1999.

(With Calvin Miller) A Village Christmas: Personal Family Memories and Holiday Traditions, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1999.

(With Anne Christian Buchanan) Lightposts for Living: The Art of Choosing a Joyful Life, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1999.

The Home You Made for Me: Celebrating a Mother's Love, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 2000.

Thomas Kinkade: Masterworks of Light, Bullfinch Press (Boston, MA), 2000.

Garden of Friendship, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 2000.

My Father's World: Masterpieces and Memories of the Great Outdoors, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 2000.

Let Your Light Shine, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 2001.

Shapes, text by Sally Lloyd-Jones, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 2001.

Colors, text by Sally Lloyd-Jones, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 2001.

Numbers, text by Sally Lloyd-Jones, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 2001.

Animals, text by Sally Lloyd-Jones, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 2001.

Off the Beaten Path: Devotionals, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 2001.

Warmth from the Windows, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 2001.

Thomas Kinkade's Romantic Europe, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 2001.

Thomas Kinkade's Sea to Shining Sea, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 2001.

(With wife, Nanette Kincaid) The Many Loves of Marriage, Multnomah Publishers (Sisters, OR), 2001.

A Book of Joy, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2002.

Joy of Fatherhood, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2002.

Joy of Motherhood, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2002.

Life's Little Blessings, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2002.

Simple Little Pleasures, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 2002.

Finding a Peaceful Place, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 2002.

(Compiler with Anne Christian Buchanan) Just around the Bend, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 2002.

(With Katherine Spencer) Cape Light, Berkley Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Mealtime Memories: Sharing the Warmth of Family Traditions, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 2002.

Christmas Traditions, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2002.

The End of a Perfect Day, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 2002.

Family Traditions, compiled by Kathleen Blease, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2002.

(With Patrick Regan) Friends for Life, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2002.

(With Katherine Spencer) Home Song: A Cape Light Novel, Berkley Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Land That I Love, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 2002.

The Light of Christmas, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2002.

Places in the Heart, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2002.

The Voice of Creation, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 2002.

Welcome Home for Christmas, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2002.

Window Box Collection, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 2002.

Prayers of Hope and Light, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 2003.

(With Robert C. Larson) Touched by the Light: Inspirational Reflections from the Artist and His Friends, J. Countryman (Nashville, TN), 2003.

A Child Is a Gift, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2003.

A Christmas Celebration, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2003.

(With Katherine Spencer) A Gathering Place: A Cape Light Novel, Berkley Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Let Freedom Ring, quotations compiled by Patrick Regan, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2003.

(With Nanette Kinkade and Larry Libby) The Many Loves of Christmas, Multnomah Publishers (Sisters, OR), 2003.

(With Nanette Kinkade and Larry Libby) The Many Loves of Parenting, Multnomah Publishers (Sisters, OR), 2003.

A Mother's Timeless Wisdom, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 2003.

A Sister Knows Your Heart, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2003.

The Thomas Kinkade Story: A Twenty-Year Chronology of the Artist, text by Rick Barnett, Bullfinch Press (Boston, MA), 2003.

(With Katherine Spencer) A New Leaf: A Cape Light Novel, Berkley Books (New York, NY), 2004.

(With Katherine Spencer) A Christmas Promise: A Cape Light Novel, Berkley Books (New York, NY), 2004.

(With Erika Tamar) Katherine's Story: A Girls of Lighthouse Lane Novel, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.

(With Erika Tamar) Rose's Story: A Girls of Lighthouse Lane Novel, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.

(With Erika Tamar) Lizabeth's Story: A Girls of Lighthouse Lane Novel, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.

(With Erika Tamar) Amanda's Story: A Girls of Lighthouse Lane Novel, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.

The Art of Creative Living: Making Every Day a Masterpiece, Warner Faith (New York, NY), 2005.

Also creator of Drawing Excitement with Thomas Kinkade, a three-volume instructional video, 2003.

Sidelights

"How much is a picture worth?" asked painter and businessman Thomas Kinkade in an article for American Artist. "According to one well-worn cliche, the going rate is a thousand words," Kinkade continued. However, Kinkade concludes in his article that "there does exist a system that is objective and ethically sound....The value of a work of art is measured in terms of life itself . . . in its ability to sustain and enhance the act of living." Or, a cool million, which is what an original Kinkade painting fetches. Or anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $25,000 for digital prints, depending on the level of hand retouching involved. Kinkade has become the most collected painter in the United States; it is estimated that reproductions of his work appear in one out of every twenty homes in the country and are distributed at thousands of licensed dealers around the world. Kinkade's dreamy images of luminescent cottages and gardens can be found on everything from prints to coffee mugs, and from doormats, sheets, and dinnerware to lighting fixtures. The self-styled "painter of light," Kinkade has turned painting quaint cottages into far more than a cottage industry. His Thomas Kinkade Company distributes his art and collectibles, netting over $30 million per year. Such success still baffles Kinkade, who grew up in northern California simply wanting to sketch and paint. One of his childhood heroes was Norman Rockwell, whose paintings graced the covers of the Saturday Evening Post for decades and were widely reproduced. It is fitting that Kinkade has often been called the Rockwell of the new millennia.

Kinkade has his critics, of course, in particular the art establishment, which looks upon his work as kitsch or worse. One reviewer dubbed Kinkade "the pet rock of the art world," according to Randall Balmer in Christianity Today. Art historian Mark Pohlad, writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education, called Kinkade's art "the equivalent of a Schwarzenegger movie," and art professor Brooke Cameron, writing in the same publication, compared Kinkade's work to those nineteenth-century printmaker recorders of Americana, Currier and Ives. "He's offering a warm fuzzy buzz for people," Cameron commented, while Laura Miller, writing in Salon.com, dubbed Kinkade's work a sort of "cultural Prozac." For Kinkade, these criticisms do not matter. He sees his work as a solace for people. As he told Ted Kreiter of the Saturday Evening Post, "I try to create images of inspiration, hope, a simpler way of life.... Messages that linger in the mind and remind you that the world is not all the ugliness you see on the 10:00 news—that there is good news and good stories about good people that are more compelling than that bad news you see on CNN."

In addition to paintings and prints, Kinkade has also put his art and thoughts between book covers. Strongly religious, he has published dozens of titles that combine his paintings with messages of good will and a largely Christian piety. With titles such as Lightposts for Living: The Art of Choosing a Joyful Life, Kinkade crossed over from evangelical publishing, where much of his work first appeared, to mainstream New York publishing. He has also tried his hand at novels, working with Katherine Spencer on the "Cape Light" series of books set in a small New England town, and "Girls of Lighthouse Lane" series written with Erika Tamar for young-adult readers.

Art at an Early Age

Born in 1958, Kinkade was raised by his mother, as his parents divorced when he was five years old. He grew up in the Sierra foothills in the town of Placerville, where his was the only divorced family he knew of. There was no father there to pick him up after baseball practice, and this was "a cause of embarrassment and shame," as he told Kreiter. His family was not well off, but he possessed something the other kids at school did not have: an ability to draw. "I was always the kid who could draw," he told Kreiter, and that skill brought him a great source of "dignity." Kinkade has said that he started being an artist as a baby. Early on his mother introduced him to the art of Rockwell, and Kinkade came to love the naturalistic style of that artist. Also, growing up in a small town himself, he imbibed the sights and sounds of such an atmosphere where everybody knew everybody else and Saturdays were haircut day on Main Street.

Graduating from high school, Kinkade attended the University of California at Berkeley, for a time, on a scholarship. His art professors there talked about the best art being an expression of the inner artist, but Kinkade was looking for a more common touch, an art that would appeal to the masses. He studied at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design, and experienced something of a Christian awakening that changed the direction his art was taking, making it more optimistic. In this, he was also partly inspired by the Hudson River Luminist School of the nineteenth century and by nineteenth-century Romantic painters such as Caspar David Friedrich. Graduating, he and a friend, James Gurney, traveled around the country sketching and together wrote The Artist's Guide to Sketching. In 1983 he went to work on Ralph Bakshi's animated film Fire and Ice, for which he did thousands of animated background cells. Work on this film also pointed Kinkade in the direction of playing with light.

Transforms into "Painter of Light"

After a year in Hollywood, Kinkade returned to his hometown of Placerville, married his childhood sweetheart, Nanette, and set up shop as an artist. A breakthrough came early for him. In 1984 he produced a thousand prints of his painting Placerville—1916, selling each for $35. The print run sold out, and Kinkade was convinced that he was on the right track depicting a simpler, historical Americana for consumers living in a much more complex and fast-lane world. In 1989 his inspirational oil painting Yosemite Valley was selected for reproduction as a National Parks Collector's Print, and that same year he and friend Ken Raasch founded Lightpost Publishing. Kinkade restyled himself by the trademark of Painter of Light, and he was on his way. Kinkade increasingly developed a signature style: a soft-focus take on pastoral scenes. A contributor for the Dallas Morning News described these as "idyllic, sentimental visions that evoke feelings of yesteryear: Flower-draped gateways opening to paths that seem to wind endlessly; steeple-topped churches and quaint, warm homes with glowing windows; peaceful streams winding through lush forests." Paintings such as Gardens beyond Spring Gate, Pools of Serenity, Evening Majesty, A New Day Dawning, Lilac Cottage, and McKenna's Cottage all emphasize the play of light. As writer Susan Orlean noted in the New Yorker, "Kinkade's paintings are filled with lampposts and windows and images of the sun, and the lampposts are always lit, the windows always illuminated, the sun usually in a dramatic moment of rising or setting. Light is Kinkade's hallmark." Writing in the Spectator, Mary Wakefield explained Kinkade's technique: "Instead of just slapping on the acrylic paint, he steals a trick from the Renaissance and builds up thin layers of semi-transparent oils as if they were water-colours. The effect is a creepy luminosity and claustrophobic senses of 'message.'" Kinkade also began adding the Christian fish symbol to his paintings as well as a reference to John 3:16 beneath his signature. The light became a symbol of religious awakening.

The real genius in the Kinkade enterprise, however, came with the distribution of his artwork. He no longer sells the originals, but rather digitally copies them as prints on canvas or fine paper. These prints are then highlighted by a team of trained employees in a few prescribed places to give the prints a painted feel. The top-of-the-line editions of prints are touched up by Kinkade himself and personally signed by the artist. The rest receive a computerized signature with ink that has Kinkade's DNA (from hair or blood) as proof of authenticity. Lightpost Publishing distributed these works through a lone gallery at first, and then as the work caught on more and more galleries were added in a network of what became over 350 Thomas Kinkade Signature Galleries across the United States, with thousands of other certified dealers in the United States and England. His work appeared in malls rather than fancy art galleries where they would compete with the work of other artists. By the mid-1990s the San Jose, California-based Media Arts Group bought Lightpost and Kinkade went public, with stock in the company soaring. By 2000 sales of prints were worth $138 million. Collectibles and a dizzying array of spin-offs accounted for more millions, leading to some $200 million annually. Kinkade's artwork was available online and on television. In 2001 a Kinkade-inspired housing development opened north of San Francisco, with four models of houses, each named after one of the artist's daughters. By 2002 Kinkade had sold over ten million digital reproductions of his artwork

A New Direction

With the softening of the economy, however, in 2000 and 2001, Kinkade also suffered. Media Arts lost $13 million in 2001 and its stock plummeted. The highlighting factory which churned out 10,000 assembly-line prints monthly had been doing its job too well, and suddenly the market was flooded with Kinkade prints, driving the price down in gift shops, much to the dismay of official Kinkade gallery owners who were obliged contractually to sell at a certain price. Some of these disgruntled owners even sued Kinkade for dumping products on the market. Kinkade, however, weathered this storm. Like other companies caught in a similar bind, Media Arts downsized, galleries were cut and production scaled back. In 2004 Kinkade reportedly spent $37 million to regain control and take his company, now called the Thomas Kinkade Company, private.

Meanwhile, Kinkade was exploring further ways to either express himself or to get the company name out, depending on which critic one reads. He expanded the market for his Christian self-help books. His 1999 title, Lightposts for Living, written with Anne Christian Buchanan, is, according to Booklist's Ray Olson, a "kinder, gentler version of thinking positively," though some, Olson went on to note, may recoil from it "as kitsch." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly noted that Kinkade "articulates his vision and his essentially Christian philosophy of life" in this gift book that is "guaranteed to charm his fans." Adorned with a signature Kinkade cover, the book did just that, rising to the bestseller lists. Teaming up with Katherine Spencer, Kinkade turned his hand to fiction with the "Cape Light" series of books, the first of which appeared in 2002. The series opener, Cape Light, finds thirty-two-year-old Jessica returning to the idyllic village of Cape Light in New England to help care for her mother, who has suffered a stroke. She has left her bank job in Boston and is only too eager to return and say good-bye forever to her overtly religious little backwater hometown. However, when she falls in love with the local handyman, churchgoing Sam, all this changes. Jessica's sister, Emily, mayor of the town, meanwhile is facing new opposition from the owners of a local restaurant. And unknown to her, the new waitress at this restaurant is none other than the child she put up for adoption twenty years earlier. Critical reception to the novel was largely negative. Called a "sugar-coated modern fairy tale," by Jeff Zaleski in Publishers Weekly, the novel "sags under a surfeit of trite, blatantly proselytizing Christian subplots and syrupy sentimentality." Similar criticism came from Booklist contributor Megan Kalan, who complained of a "surfeit of heavy-handed religious references." Miller, in Salon.com, felt the novel was "appalling," and that with it Kinkade "makes a strong bid to become the world champion of vapid, money-grubbing kitsch." Miller wondered how much of a hand Kinkade had in the actual writing, other than adding an introduction. However, with built-in distribution through his chain of retailers, all critics assumed the book would sell well.

The "Cape Light" series continues through several more titles. Many of the plot threads set up in the first are played out in Home Song, with difficulties setting in with Jessica's romance with Sam, more back story featuring Emily's daughter, and a new character, an ex-cop from Boston, added. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly thought that Kinkade and Spencer "take a simplistic approach to political and family problems, with a considerable dose of Protestant proselytizing." The same contributor also felt that the characters, "though pleasant enough, are one-dimensional." The 2004 addition to the series, A Christmas Promise, was described as a "syrupy holiday concoction," by another Publishers Weekly reviewer.

Writing with Erika Tamar, Kinkade uses the Cape Light setting for a series of historical novels for young adults, "Girls of Lighthouse Lane." The first of these, Katherine's Story, is an "engaging if somewhat contrived debut," according to a Publishers Weekly critic, about the daughter of the lighthouse keeper in 1905. Young Kat wants to be an artist, and her plans are seemingly advanced when she is instrumental in saving a couple from Boston one stormy night. However, financial problems get in the way of her dreams, but plucky Kat sets off on her own course anyway. The same reviewer concluded that "readers are likely to find these characters sufficiently likable to justify another visit to Cape Light."

If you enjoy the works of Thomas Kinkade

If you enjoy the works of Thomas Kinkade, you may also want to check out the following:

The art of Romantic painters J.W.M. Turner (1775-1851) and Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), as well as Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole (1801-1848).

Kinkade is also involved in charitable work and in training school children in the arts. As he told Christina Waters in MetroActive Arts Online, "it's not about money. It's about blessing others with my God-given abilities.... Humans are essentially idealistic.... They want to believe that some where, just around the bend, is paradise. I provide that paradise."

Biographical and Critical Sources

BOOKS

Barnett, Rick, The Thomas Kinkade Story: A Twenty-Year Chronology of the Artist, Bullfinch Press (Boston, MA), 2003.

Doherty, Stephen, The Artist in Nature: Thomas Kinkade and the Plein Air Tradition, Watson-Guptill (New York, NY), 2002.

PERIODICALS

American Artist, October, 1983, review of The Artist's Guide to Sketching, p. 36; October, 2001, M. Stephen Doherty, "Thomas Kinkade Shares His Light," p. 20; April, 2002, Thomas Kinkade, "Worth More than a Thousand Words," p. 16.

Architecture, October, 2001, "Thomas Kinkade," p. 41.

Booklist, March 1, 1999, Ray Olson, review of Lightposts for Living, p. 100; February 1, 2002, Megan Kalan, review of Cape Light, p. 907; April 15, 2004, Candace Smith, review of Drawing Excitement with Thomas Kinkade, p. 1459.

Business Wire, December 15, 2004, "The Thomas Kinkade Company Signs Two New Licenses."

Christianity Today, December 4, 2000, "The Artist as Prophet," p. 30, Randall Balmer, "The Kinkade Crusade," p. 48.

Chronicle of Higher Education, February 22, 2002, "Thomas Kinkade Paintings: Despite Elitist Gripes, He's America's Most Popular Artist," p. B4.

Dallas Morning News, January 22, 2001, Pamela Yip, "Thomas Kinkade's Paintings Dazzle Christian Collectors."

Good Housekeeping, December, 1999, Donna Bulseco, "Thomas Kinkade's Traditional Celebration," p. 116.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI), February 22, 2001, Dave Tianen, "A Glowing Success," p. O1.

New American, December 17, 2001, William Jasper, "A Beacon in the Night," p. 14.

Newsweek, May 13, 2002, Karen Breslau, "Paint by Numbers," p. 48.

New Yorker, October 15, 2001, Susan Orlean, "Art for Everybody," p. 124.

New York Times, November 17, 1999, Tessa DeCarlo, "Landscapes by the Carload: Art or Kitsch?," p. A51; October 4, 2001, John Leland, "Subdivided and Licensed, There's No Place Like Art," p. E1.

People, April 10, 2000, Russell Scott Smith and Ken Baker, "Sunny Side Up," p. 200; September 8, 2003, Richard Jerome, "Not a Pretty Picture,"p. 115.

Publishers Weekly, January 15, 1996, review of Thomas Kinkade: Paintings of Radiant Light, p. 455; March 8, 1999, review of Lightposts for Living, p. 54; September 27, 2001, review of A Child's Christmas at St. Nicholas Circle, p. 60; February 25, 2002, Jeff Zaleski, review of Cape Light, p. 41; March 18, 2002, Karen Raugust, "The Novelist of Light," p. 28; October 7, 2002, review of Home Song, p. 53; October 4, 2004, review of A Christmas Promise, p. 71; April 19, 2004, review of Katherine's Story, p. 61.

Reason, October, 2000, Charles Freund, "Art in Its Own Light," p. 54.

Roanoke Times (Roanoke, VA), December 21, 2001, Beth Jones, "Light Brigade," p. 1.

Sacramento Business Journal, March 9, 2001, Mark Anderson, "Lights out for Marble Valley," p. 1; July 20, 2001, Katherine Conrad, "Coming to Vallejo," p. 9.

San Francisco Chronicle, May 26, 1999, Sam Whiting, "Let There Be Light," p. D1; February 4, 2001, Kenneth Baker, "Thomas Kinkade: A Case Study in Kitsch," p. 65.

Saturday Evening Post, March-April, 2003, Ted Kreiter, "Thomas Kinkade's American Dream," p. 38.

School Library Journal, May, 1983, review of The Artist's Guide to Sketching, p. 102.

Spectator, July 27, 2002, Mary Wakefield, "Saving Souls through Painting," p. 42.

St. Petersburg Times (St. Petersburg, FL), March 8, 2001, Babita Persaud, "A Light for All to See," p. W36.

Success, April, 2001, Scott Smith, "Celeb Success: Thomas Kinkade," p. 96.

Time, August 30, 1999, Dan Cray, "Art of Selling Kitsch," p. 62.

Time International, April 23, 2001, "Lucre and the Light," p. 64.

USA Weekend, February 4, 2000, Monika Guttman, "Thomas Kinkade's Artistic Values," pp. 8-9.

Wall Street Journal, March 25, 1998, E. S. Browning, "Media Arts Paints a Bright Future, but Skeptics Have Trouble Picturing the Stock Much Higher," p. C2; March 24, 1999, Brenda Moore, "'Painter of Light' Sketches a New Role: Self-Help Guru," p. CA1; November 29, 1999, Lynn Cowan, "With Kinkade, Media Arts Group Is a Blank Canvas," p. A13.