Thomas Kinkade, Drinker of Lite

Last week Thomas Kinkade, the Painter of Light, died at the age of 54 from what was called "natural causes," but apparently that was not the case. Kinkade had long battled alcoholism and preliminary reports say he drank himself to death.

Now you may think Kinkade was a great artist or you may be sane and think he was just a master of kitsch, but no matter how you slice it he was the master of commercialized art. You could pick up his art on home shopping channels or buy a gallery franchise. If you chose the latter you probably are reading this sans shirt.

Thomas and his wife split up two years ago and he was living with his girlfriend when he died. She was the one who called 911 when he stopped breathing.

Unbeknownst to us, Mr. Kinkade had a habit of getting hammered and doing horrible things in public.

According to Wikipedia (and we have no reason to think it's not true):

The LA 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 while saying "This one's for you, Walt."

Oh, it gets better.

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. He was convicted.

So it appears he led a troubled life which he tried to keep in the closet where all his artwork should have been.

RIP.