so by that argument, because the work is new, kinkade isn't an artist?
Yikes! If Kinkade is art, Precious Moments is sculpture.
A past girlfriend got a tattoo of a flower above her left breast, probably because she likes them, but just as likely to piss off her mom. A pregnancy plus a few decades of smoking and too much sun exposure later it is really hard to say what it is. I wouldn't call it art.
Some art forms grows more beautiful with age. Tattoos aren't one of them.
An artist?
Perhaps....but more a con artist or pop art artist than one whose work will be shown in museums a few hundred years after his death.
Kinkade is to art, what fantasy is to reality - or in the worse case what rap is to music.
Don't confuse being "popular" with being good....or having a tongue guaranteeing "taste"...
Semper Fi