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The Zen of Painting
From 1982 to 1993, Bob Ross (the Dali Lama
of television painting) duped viewers into believing that “they to0” could
make 30 minute rectangular creations of Magic Black Gesso, Yellow Ochre,
Titanium White and full of Happy Trees.
In my classrooms, the name Bob Ross always
comes up or “you know, that guy with the afro that paints on TV.” Although
Ross died in 1995, many don’t realize he has passed until they have been
put under the Bob Ross Trance. Most students think he is the premier artist
of all time. Never mind the masters of past or present: da Vinci, van Gogh,
Dali, Close, Pearlstein or Scharf. They don’t understand why he is not in
the art history books…Maybe he will be included in, say a pop culture book
one day soon... For generations have sat at the feet of the Brillo-headed
sage of the tree brush and repeated his mantra, “Happy Accidents, Happy
Accidents.”
The world is filled with the Bob Ross
aesthetic. The Bob Ross Company has trained over 2000 Bob Ross Certified
Instructors across America. I dread getting into a conversation
about art in the gas station, or with a little lady at church and even a local
sporting goods store. Because I always run into someone whose aunt or
cousin is a painter. “Really?” I say. And come to find out they are a BRCI…so
out of politeness I hold my tongue.
Co-Owner of Bob Ross Inc. stated “people
think you have to be blessed with talent to be a painter. I think we have
reversed that notion.” INDEED! This thinking is the reason music is in
such a sad state. Even though some art skill can be learned, TALENT is
something that is imperative or at least cultivated in time though practice
and hard work. It doesn’t come from a 30-minute television program and
$375 of official Bob Ross “how to” books, fan brushes and paints. Fact
is, Bob Ross practiced his techniques for 30 years before he hit the PBS
stations. One online encyclopedia service claims that Ross introduced the
wet-on-wet technique! Amazing! Warning! Sarcasm ahead: I wonder why
no one in the course of mankind ever did that in art before!
People do spend hundreds to buy the Bob Ross
line of products. They want the right tree brush and the same type easel
he used. “What is gesso?” After loading up their Visa cards they are oft
left standing in their kitchens with the vcr/dvd player on
pause…struggling to replicate Ross’s paintings. “But, it looks so easy.”
Bob Ross will undoubtedly live on in
television syndication, DVD, VHS and the product line that bears his
name. And generations to come will bow at the afro of history’s most
recognized painter and yearn longingly into the wilderness of “their
little world” in search of the squirrel in the knothole and the crows that
take the elevator to the top of the pine trees.
Bob Ross’s art is not the pinnacle of
fine art. I take it for what it is…a man showing people an easy way to
paint…one step up from paint by numbers. It was his personality that
will make him live-on, not his art. Bob Ross donated most of his originals
to charities and PBS stations.
January
21, 2006
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