Our Favorite Reader Reactions To Thomas Kinkade's Life And Work

Thomas Kinkade was quite possibly the most collected living artist and one of the most criticized, both for his sentimental artworks and for questionable decisions made in his personal life.

We have received thousands of comments from readers in the past weeks and have been impressed by the thoughtful responses to Kinkade's life and work, whether complimentary or critical. His death raises many questions, such as: What role should an artist's personality play in the reception of his works? How do commercial success and critical success interact? Is authenticity still valuable in art? Is it wrong to have popular appeal?

Some of our readers have pointed to the business practices and hypocritical private persona of the Evangelical artist, known as the "Painter of Light" to fans and foes. And yet, we can all agree that his art accomplished what it set out to do: make a large number of people across the country happy every day.

In honor of the great number of commenters that remark on issues on our page every day, we have compiled a slideshow of some comments we particularly enjoyed, from the snarky to the genuine. If you'd like to see more, we recommend visiting the original article or revisit John Seed's thoughtful comparison between Mike Kelley and Kinkade.