Thomas Kinkade DEAD

[Agnetha]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17645459

No I hadn't heard of him, but a google of his MANY works provided a few familiar scenes of an IDYLLIC NATURE. They remind me of 80s jigsaws, 80s Christmas cards and 80s children books.

I feel Moopy Cemetery has been itself a BIT DEAD of late. I have noticed a few deaths have been ENTIRELY IGNORED.

[Eileen]

We didn't even have a thread for Jockey Wilson Should've done it myself.

[Agnetha]

I know right... I mean he's (un)intentionally ingrained in popular culture for that TOTP thing...

[Agnetha]

I think it's the WHITNEY EFFECT. No-one else was THAT AMAZING or SOMETHING. Well it needs to be BROUGHT BACK to DEATH.

[lolly]

I'd heard of Thomas Kinkade, but only because QVC flog his tat on jigsaws, placemats and the like.

[TurnerPrize]

"he died of natural causes"

How bizarrely vague for a 54 year old.

I suppose pretty much all deaths ARE of natural causes (cancer, heart attack, TSUNAMI) but WHICH WAS IT? I imagine they wouldn't know straight away but surely "he died of a suspected [blank]" would be the better thing to write, instead of such useless vagary usually only associated with very old people who have been expected to drop down dead for the past decade.

Looking at the picture i'd guess HEART PROBLEMS

[lolly]

If you're STABBED IN THE HEART and die I suppose THAT'S natural, after all.

[TurnerPrize]

The lazy disinterested journo who wrote the bbc article would probably refer to that as 'heart complications'. FIRE THEM NOW, BEEB

The LA Times did it properly -

His family attributed his death to natural causes, and officials have not commented further on the case other than to say that the Santa Clara County coroner will perform the autopsy.

*weirdly invested in this*

[lolly]

*weirdly invested in this*

Have one of his LOVELY paintings to keep you going until the results are in.



That would look lovely on a set of coasters in your granny's front room.

[COB]

From wiki:

The Los Angeles Times has reported that some of Kinkade's former colleagues, employees, and even collectors of his work say that he has a long history of cursing and heckling other artists and performers. The Times further reported that he openly groped a woman's breasts at a South Bend, Indiana sales event, and mentioned his proclivity for ritual territory marking through urination, once relieving himself on a Winnie the Pooh figure at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim while saying "This one's for you, Walt." In a letter to licensed gallery owners acknowledging he may have behaved badly during a stressful time when he overindulged in food and drink, Kinkade said accounts of the alcohol-related incidents included "exaggerated, and in some cases outright fabricated personal accusations." The letter did not address any incident specifically.

In 2006, John Dandois, Media Arts Group executive, recounted a story that on one occasion ("about six years ago") Kinkade became drunk at a Siegfried & Roy magic show in Las Vegas and began shouting "Codpiece! Codpiece!" at the performers. Eventually he was calmed by his mother. Dandois also said of Kinkade, "Thom would be fine, he would be drinking, and then all of a sudden, you couldn't tell where the boundary was, and then he became very incoherent, and he would start cursing and doing a lot of weird stuff like touching himself." In June 2010, Kinkade was arrested in Carmel, California for driving while under the influence of alcohol and received a DUI.

The best part is that his shit paintings are (were?) so popular with American religious types, who I can only assume ignored the fact he was a HORRIBLE CUNT and total piss artist in real life.