The Spectre of Ken

Had the following conversation over the family dinner-table on Saturday, as we ate ersatz Christmas-roast lunch...
(Paraphrased):
Dad: I've been looking at your new blog about Ken Done, I'm not sure I understand it.
Me: Ah, yes. Ken Done's awful. He's great.
Mum: You shouldn't be nasty about Ken Done. He's done very well for himself. He made millions.
Me: Yes, I know he has. But anyway didn't he lose all his money? My friend Kate told me he had been scammed by his agent and lost all his money.
Kerry (sister): He's still around though, didn't he design all that Australis stuff, you can still get it.
Mum: He's good, Ken Done.
Me: He's interesting. He's a sellout though.
Leif (nephew): I just did a big school project on Ken Done, I wrote an essay about him.

I was talking to a woman down in Tasmania earlier this year about Ken Done doona cover/pillow slip sets; she had scored some really cheap because they had minor imperfections. 'Ken Done', she said, 'you either love him or hate him - and I love him.'
A lot of Ken Done's work makes me feel slightly nauseous to look at. The garishness; the aspects of Australian culture which it seeks to glamorise; the gauche banality of it; the disciple-like outward-looking approach; the valorisation of Matisse, Gauguin et al.
Occasionally though, he comes out with something good, in his moments of weakness - or, more accurately, moments in which he perceives himself to have failed...