Artist:Thomas Kinkade

1. What is the reason for the cute landscapes?
2. What is the primary audience?
3. Is there any irony in the construction of these fantasy landscapes?

1. It appears that the artist identifies with the idea of unity within society and has a utopian idealism that accompanies. He sees his place as being evangelical and needs to show how things are good in the world by displaying perversions of the real world. The use of idealistic landscapes are used as propaganda; they message is encoded into an image that has mass appeal that can be easily digested. I can't remember the russian photographers name but he altered photographs he had taken to create a communist utopian idealism. Anything that went against this vision was either omitted or altered. Also, the structure and composition of the photographs were also very important in the creation of the sublime.
2. The primary audience is the average person. The elite art viewer is not satisfied by the simple representation with the lack of strong social context. The elite are only satisfied by the perverse. There is a constant need for more, an all consuming addiction. Satire of art is what becomes art in order to create a fulfillment.
3. There is no imparted irony by the artist. The images are deadpan deliveries of his idealism.

THREE MORE:
1. What is the important function to society that these images fill?
2. Can the images survive into the future without the attachment of irony by the future art world?
3.
Is it luck or a true understanding of business that makes Kinkade successful?