ASSEMBLY-LINE KITSCH

Who are these “artists” who paint the “genuine oil paintings” for $29.95, and why do they have to be so bad? “The pedestrian banality, if not downright kitsch, of these offerings is as numbing as a TV sitcom or Norman Rockwell Christmas card. Seagulls, sand dunes, beached rowboats, heeling sailboats, wooden pilings, twinkly lighthouses and ineptly drawn old-time sailing ships parade endlessly by as evocatively as place mat decorations.” – Chicago Tribune