Claude Monet is art:
Wassily Kandinsky is art:
Pablo Picasso is art:
Rene Magritte is art:
Andy Warhol is art:
Marcel Duchamp is art:
Thomas Kinkade is not art:
Every one of the above artists had a reason to paint what they painted, a message they wanted to convey, a new style or artistic idea to share. They painted because they loved to paint, or because they had to paint, or because painting gave them an outlet to express something.
Kinkade, if he even paints anything himself, paints to exploit a group of easily influenced sheeple - evangelical Christians - and make tons and tons of money off of them. He's a sleazy businessman, not an artist. His works lack any depth of style or substance, and they add nothing to the overall artistic conversation. They are the painted equivalent of a McDonalds hamburger - mass-produced, tasteless, and bad for America. The only lesson we can take away from Kinkade is the lesson that people are suckers who will buy anything, which is a lesson that has already been explored in art a million times over, often with a touch of humor or irony.