More from and about
Thomas Kinkade
(biographical info at bottom of page)

  

Cherish the people who make up your home, and you'll
notice the hearth fires burn brighter than ever before.

   
Most people are just too busy and their life spins out of control in frenzy and I began to see that happening in my life as more and more commitments would weigh in on my daily schedule and I would lose time with my family in favor of these commitments that had to be met and I just decided that there must be some ways, some simple tools, to bring back to my life those foundational life elements, those peaceful times with my family.  Those simple moments of walking in the neighborhood and riding the bicycle and taking time to read a book. Simple things that enhance life and give your life balance.

      
One of the basic things that we did in our life was that we eliminated the television and that’s a radical thing for most people because it is a drug-like addiction that people have to that, as a form of relaxation they have in the evenings. But it is a kind of stressful element in the life because people become hooked on certain shows, which create commitments, which you have to be there because you can’t miss this latest show. And when we got the television out of our home, which was just a couple of years into our marriage, we found that we had so much time for things we really liked to do. I don’t have any particular moral objection to television per se. It is a neutral media that is neither good nor evil. However, it can be either, depending on the content. But as a medium it is neutral.  Therefore, television is not to me intrinsically evil, but to me it is a thief of time.
  
Whether it's a pebble in a riverbed or a soaring mountain peak, I see everything in the world as the handiwork of the Lord. When I paint, I try to represent the beauty of God's creation in my art. Many modern painters see the world as a jumble of random lines and shapes with no divine beauty or order, and their works reflect their viewpoint. Because I see God's peacefulness, serenity, and contentment, I work to capture those feelings on the canvas.  My vision of God defines my vision of the world.
   

Balance, peace, and joy are the fruit of a successful life.  It starts with
recognizing your talents and finding ways to serve others by using them.

     

Surround yourself with the kinds of input that are uplifting,
that expand your mind and settle your spirit.

   

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Beauty is found in anything that delights the
senses, nourishes the soul, fires the imagination.

   

There is something deeply refreshing about any truly creative pursuit.
And the benefits of creative endeavor don't depend on the quality of
the endeavor. It is the very act of creating that renews you. This is why
I am so passionate about encouraging people to paint or draw--to create--
regardless of whether or not they have "talent." I believe that any creative
endeavor pays magnificent benefits for the time invested. Not only does
it afford the simple, childlike satisfaction of playing with materials--
smearing paint, scribbling ideas and images, pounding with hammer and
nails--but it also helps us make connections and understand life a little better.

   

The worlds I paint leave a lot to engage the imagination by hinting
at what lies beyond the four edges of the painting. I think getting
beyond the four edges of an opportunity or challenge is one
of the basic skills you need in business.

   

    
Thomas Kinkade was born in Sacramento, California on January 19th, 1958. He was raised in nearby Placerville, a small town in the former gold fields of the Sierra foothills. At the tender age of five, little Thomas Kinkade and his two siblings were left fatherless after their parent's divorce. They were impoverished and lived in the most run-down house on the street. His mother, Marianne, tried to make ends meet on her modest secretary's wage, but being a single working mom was a tough job. Often the three children came home to a dark empty house. Kinkade recalls, "There wasn't much stability." Despite the tough times, Thom's family encouraged his interest in art. Kinkade dreamt of the future and that someday, he would make his living as a painter and would have enough money to build a nice family home and not worry about paying the bills.

In Placerville, he was a boy with crayons, a kid who could draw. He was also the local newspaper delivery boy, an avid swimmer and loyal friend. As a child he constantly read biographies of artists, including those of painters and illustrators like Norman Rockwell, Maxwell Parrish and Howard Pyle. At age 11, he had his first "apprenticeship." Charles Bell, a local painter, instructed him in basic techniques. It was that year that he sold his first painting for $7.50. The woman who bought it remembered thinking at the time, I'd better hold onto this picture. In high school, Kinkade came face to face with twentieth-century modernism in the person of Glenn Wessels, a former professor in the art department at the University of California. Wessels encouraged Kinkade both to tie his art more directly to emotion (rather than observation alone) and to experiment with highly personal forms of expression.

He also influenced Kinkade's decision to attend the University of California at Berkley, where he enrolled in studio art and art history classes with a vision of himself as a counterculture nonconformist who would use his art to change and challenge convention. But Berkley in the 1970's gave Thom a culture shock of his own. He discovered he was indeed a nonconformist in his dislike of their system of art education. "My professors would say art should be all about you," Kinkade recalls. "That's a very self-centered approach." After two years of frustration, Thom decided it was time to move on and he transferred to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. The fierce competition with other students pushed him to an intensive development of techniques for creating effects of light and mood. His work at the Art Center helped him to get hired to paint backgrounds--700 of them--for Disney's Hollywood animation studios on the animated film Fire and Ice. After one year he decided to move on.

In 1982, Thom and his high school sweetheart, Nanette, were married in a small church in Placerville. The church became the subject of his painting "Blossom Hill Church." The young couple had moved back to their hometown and decided to go into business on their own. They began making limited edition prints of Thom's work out of their garage. Their first piece was Dawson, a beautiful tribute to early Alaska. Nanette helped to take orders and then pack and ship the prints from their garage. Immediately, they were a success and Dawson was a complete sellout. Light post publishing was born. The corporate philosophy of Light post remains the creation of art that will communicate with people and whose message "uplifts people." With help from investors he opened 10 galleries across the country to display and sell his artwork. By early 1998 he had more than 100, and has since tripled. The little boy with big dreams had grown to become the World's Most Collected Artist.

Kinkade passed away in 2012.

~from thomaskinkadeimages.com 
  

    

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Yes, life can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's actually rather dependable and reliable.  Some principles apply to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning.  I use it a lot when I teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.  What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or generous, compassionate or arrogant?  In this book, I've done my best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life, writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.  Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too!
Universal Principles of Living Life Fully.  Awareness of these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration out of the lives we lead.

           

Other people: 

Alan Watts
- Albert Einstein - Albert Schweitzer - Andy Rooney - Anne Frank
Anne Morrow Lindbergh - Anne Wilson Schaef - Annie Dillard - Anthony Robbins
Ari Kiev - Artur Rubenstein - Barbara Johnson - Benjamin Disraeli - Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Hoff - Bernie Siegel - Bertrand Russell - Betty Eadie - Booker T. Washington
Charlotte Davis Kasl
- Cheryl Richardson - Cristina Feldman - C.S. Lewis - the Dalai Lama
Dale Carnegie - Dawna MarkovaDeepak Chopra - Don Miguel Ruiz - Earl Nightingale
Elaine St. James - Eleanor Roosevelt - Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross - Ralph Waldo Emerson Emmet Fox - Frederick Buechner - George Bernard Shaw - George Santayana
George Washington Carver - Gerald Jampolsky - Harold Kushner
Harry Emerson Fosdick - Helen Keller - Henry David Thoreau - Henry James
Henry Van Dyke - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Henry Ward Beecher - Hugh Prather
Immanuel Kant
- Iyanla Vanzant - Jack Canfield - James Allen - Jennifer James - Jim Rohn
Joan Borysenko
- Joan Chittister - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - John Izzo John Ruskin
Joni Eareckson Tada
- Joseph M. Marshall III - Julia Cameron - Kent Nerburn
Khalil Gibran Leo Buscaglia - Leonard Jacobson - Leslie Levine - Lucinda Bassett
Lydia Maria Child - Lynn Grabhorn - Marcus Aurelius - Marianne Williamson
Martin Luther King, Jr. - Maya Angelou - Melody Beattie - Michael Goddart - Mitch Albom
Mohandas Gandhi
- Morrie Schwartz - Mother Teresa - M. Scott Peck - Nathaniel Branden
Nikos Kazantzakis
- Norman Cousins - Norman Vincent Peale - Og Mandino - Oprah Winfrey
Oriah
- Orison Swett Marden - Pau Casals - Peace Pilgrim - Phillips Brooks
Rabindranath Tagore
- Rachel Carson - Rachel Naomi Remen - Rainer Maria Rilke
Ralph Waldo Trine - Richard Bach - Richard Carlson - Robert Frost - Robert Fulghum
Robert Louis Stevenson
- Russell Baker - Sarah Ban Breathnach - Shakti Gawain
Soren Kierkegaard - Stephen Covey - Stephen C. Paul - Sue Patton Thoele - Susan L. Taylor
Sylvia Boorstein - Thich Nhat Hanh - Thomas Carlyle - Thomas Kinkade - Thomas Merton
Tom Walsh
- Victor Cherbuliez - Wayne Dyer - Wilferd A. Peterson - Willa Cather
William James - William Wordsworth - Zig Ziglar - Rhonda Byrne - Neale Donald Walsch
Carl Jung
- Desmond Tutu - Paulo Coelho - Jon Kabat-Zinn - Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Walt Whitman