Thomas Kinkade is making a crusade out of his career. “The 47-year-old painter sees himself as a fine-art rebel at war with elitism. He makes it sound downright radical to be the leading creator of easy-access art in the traditions of Walt Disney, Norman Rockwell and, believe it or not, Andy Warhol. ‘My art is a populist form of art. The official art of our day – the art that our tax dollars pay for – is an art of darkness, it is an art of alienation from the public. … What I create is very much a reaction to that system.”