Christian retailers and gallery owners say they do not expect any negative impact from the company of "Painter of Light" Thomas Kinkade's recent filing for bankruptcy protection.

Dennis Lovvorn, co-owner of New Covenant Christian Bookstore in Shelbyville, Tenn., and a Kinkade dealer for nine years, said he had no intention of no longer carrying Kinkade's works. "I'm very happy with them. It's been a bright spot in a dismal economy."

The Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection petition was filed this summer, allowing the Kinkade production arm?Pacific Metro?to reorganize and put an automatic stay on the collection of all judgments, including one for $3 million owed to Karen Hazlewood and Jeff Spinello, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Hazlewood and Spinello are former gallery owners who have tried for four years to collect on a judgment they won against Kinkade. They sued the artist in 2003, claiming Kinkade duped them into investing their life's savings in a doomed enterprise.

Lovvorn?who traveled to California in September with his wife, Andrea, to attend the biennial Thomas Kinkade Dealer Conference?said the suit filed against Kinkade was "ridiculous." "Kinkade can't be faulted for somebody's poor business practice," he said. "I'm accountable for what I buy from a vendor."

Jim Odom?who owns seven Thomas Kinkade Galleries in Huntsville, Ala., as well as Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg and Chattanooga, Tenn.?told Christian Retailing that the bankruptcy protection "doesn't change anything."

"They're still shipping product," he said. "They are paying their vendors 100% to the dollar. ... I can't imagine anybody discontinuing carrying Thomas Kinkade products because of the filing."

Kinkade officials did not return phone calls and e-mails for comment.

Read the full report in the December issue of Christian Retailing.

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