Pay a quarter, see the Kinkade for two seconds before the mirror comes back down.
  • Courtesy of Trimpin and Winston WĂ„chter Fine Art
  • Pay a quarter, see the Kinkade for two seconds before the mirror comes back down.

The late Thomas Kinkade's painting empire was always dirty—and I mean truly gross, not naughty and fun. It's only fitting that now, there's a Kinkade peep show. It's a Kinkade paintingTM, hidden behind a framed mirror on the wall. Put in a quarter and the mirror rises to reveal the Kinkade—for two seconds. Then the mirror lowers again, replacing the image of your face, probably laughing. What did the painting actually look like? Who the hell cares. Every single one of them is the damn same, whether it's The Light of Peace or Rosebud Cottage or Gazebo of Prayer, Graceland Christmas, Savannah Romance. A gloss on Christian hypocrisy. Speaking of which, here's a heartfelt blog post from someone who was excommunicated a year ago from creepy, creepy Mars Hill.

The peep-show Kinkade is at Winston Wachter Fine Art in South Lake Union this month, which is having a whole show of work by MacArthur Genius-winning Seattle artist Trimpin. This is the first time Trimpin has ever had a solo show in a commercial gallery. Fittingly, there's not much to buy there but plenty to see. The Kinkade is a painting someone regifted to him after receiving it as an unwanted present.

Also in the show: deconstructed pianos showing their guts. They do play. They make sounds in various ways. One is machine-and-joystick-controlled; another is set on continuously rolling rollers with silver balls that run back and forth, striking the strings. Why'd you pick this color? I asked Trimpin about a piano that's really quite pink. "I love purple!" he answered. Is this maker of colorful sound work a little colorblind?

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