Best Friends

As America’s most-collected living artist, Thomas Kinkade has become a kind of Norman Rockwell for the new millennium. Kinkade has parlayed his background as a California family man and devout Christian to preside over a growing art empire that includes everything from books and prints to Bible covers and furniture fabric. Virtually unknown until the late 1990s, the self-described "painter of light" has seen his artistic talent develop into a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, a thriving website, a string of walk-in galleries, and a strong presence on the QVC home-shopping network. (A USA Weekend report noted that the artist’s share in the company stock was worth up to $30 million.) Because editions of his prints sell in the millions, an "original Kinkade" is a virtually unattainable object. He is a best-selling author and has illustrated such books as A Child’s Christmas at St. Nicholas Circle by Douglas Kaine McKelvey