It’s just a fact of life: Every self-respecting artist in America (and maybe beyond) has made at least one joke in her lifetime about Thomas Kinkade, the self-proclaimed "painter of light" whose kitschy pastorals (think Norman Rockwell with more yellows) reside in an estimated one out of every 20 American homes. For computer graphics designer and artist Jeff Bennett, though, the joke went a little further. He’s the mastermind behind Wars on Kinkade, a collection of Star Wars crossover art that pits Imperial invaders against the idyllic cottages that somehow no one ever actually inhabits.
"My friend and I used to joke about buying a Kinkade, and if one of us did something stupid, punishment was you’d have to hang it up for a week," Bennett told WIRED. "We never did it, 'cause no one wanted to spend that much on it. But one night watching Apocalypse Now, we talked about [superimposing] the whole ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ scene on a Kinkade."
That never panned out, but the joke ended up inspiring him a few years later to create something far nerdier — and, as it turns out, viral.
"[Lately], I’ve had trouble sleeping," he said in a 4 a.m. email. "One night recently, I came across something on Kinkade and how he was the ‘Master of Light.’ That’s when I thought I’d throw the Dark Side at him. Instead of helicopters [this time], I pictured AT-ATs looming over."
So he amassed a collection of Star Wars images – screenshots, photos of merchandise, existing fan art — and hi-res scans of Kinkade paintings and went to work. The Kinkades, he says, had to be just right, with enough negative space to fit a billowing smoke cloud or looming Empire battlecruiser. Each painting of the seven-piece collection took about "a night" to create, using CG techniques to blend Stormtroopers and Rancors onto the paintings’ canvas-like texture.
"The goal was to marry the [Star Wars] elements into the painting, make them live there," he said, noting that the first two in the set – the Walker invasion and the encroaching battlecruiser – have been the most popular with fans. "I’ve been learning a few tips on social marketing and I thought I'd test if some things were true. I posted the whole album [on deviantArt], instead of just one image at a time, to get more engagement. I had no idea it would be so well-received."
