regarding the recent death of Thomas Kinkaide........was this guy just a conservative artist who really loved to please the average guy or was he an actual hoax? I'd say a little of the former and a lot of the latter. It's not that his work was boring, unchallenging, repetitive, corny, insipid and cutesy that bothers most artists or even the fact that he made millions, maybe billions of dollars at this endeavor. The fact that he only created around 1,000 paintings in his lifetime seems incredible, considering the fact that he also created an empire in sales outlets, where the average Joe was lead to believe there was real value in owning a 'Kinkaide'. The schtick involved in these sales is overwhelming, with people actually believing copies of these paintings would be worth a huge sum of money eventually and that the status of owning one alone was reason enough to buy one. Given the inability of the over the couch position seeker to decipher good from bad and with a pleasant color scheme to choose from, this hype felt right. After all, doesn't their friend 'Joe Schmo' own one and did you hear how many have been sold afterall? Thousands, millions! All those people can't be wrong, can they, and not to mention easy payment plans to boot. The whole experience is just oh so pleasant and to think, they just happened to fall into the store right in the mall on a Sunday afternoon when all they had planned was getting a new pair of Nikes.......it was meant to be.....