Whatever makes you happy, you put in your world.
December 16, 2015 6:07 PM   Subscribe

"Painting is beside the point: the paintings in The Joy of Painting don’t matter." The joy of writing about The Joy Of Painting. In Which Bob Ross is Compared to God, Creator of Worlds.

The God comparison isn’t that farfetched. Consider Genesis. Ross’s emphasis and approach when creating a painting in some ways mirrors the story of creation. There’s the speed: God created the world in seven days; it takes Ross less than 30 minutes. And Ross’s focus on process not outcome and his reluctance to hone in on too fine a detail can be construed as an appreciation of the miracle of creation, as opposed to the minutiae of creation, above all else. There’s no florid description of the infinitesimal fractal striations on leaves in Genesis: God just said, “Let there be,” and there it was and it was good and that was that.

NYT: Bob Ross's Strange Afterlife

She has a theory about why Ross has endured. “If you listen closely to Bob’s programs, he never says ‘I’m going to teach you this,’” Ms. Kowalski said. “He never assumes that he knows more than you do. He says: ‘We’ll learn this together.’ And I think — even though people don’t realize it — I think that’s what his big turn-on is.”

Forbes: How Dead Painter Bob Ross Is Bringing Positivity To The Internet's Most Cynical Community (followup on the Twitch livestream)

To quote the artist from season five of “The Joy of Painting,” Ross said: “I got a letter from somebody here a while back, and they said, ‘Bob, everything in your world seems to be happy.’ That’s for sure. That’s why I paint. It’s because I can create the kind of world that I want, and I can make this world as happy as I want it. Shoot, if you want bad stuff, watch the news.”.

Buzzfeed: 20 Essential Life Lessons From Bob Ross, 12 Ways Bob Ross Improved Your Childhood

Bob Ross previously, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc...
posted by triggerfinger (19 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
All these Metafilter posts about Bob Ross prompted me a few months ago to start watching all the episodes in order, one per day before I get up in the morning. Good for more than a year. Thank you yet again, Metafilter.
posted by Melismata at 6:13 PM on December 16, 2015 [7 favorites]


It's called the "The Joy of Painting" for a reason, rather than say "The Joy of Making Great Art". The creation of workmanlike but mediocre, or even derivative and unremarkable art is a great way to spend one's time. Mass communication makes it difficult not to compare ourselves to the one in a million talents out there, unfortunately.
posted by skewed at 6:31 PM on December 16, 2015 [8 favorites]


That main article ends a bit suddenly, and on a very odd note.

I'm a huge Bob Ross fan. Have never painted along with him, but have watched him for decades and truly feel that I could buy the supplies and paint along with him if I ever wanted to try. I'm sure the first 100 would be total crap, but I know the technique, I just don't have the motor skills. 10,000 hours, or whatever.

I watch him regularly. Watching artists create art is a summoning of something out of nothing that I have no parallel for in my life, and it's always astounding and magical.
posted by hippybear at 6:53 PM on December 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


But Bob Ross did make great art. He had an amazing eye, and sense of visual balance (both color and frame) that make his pieces sing. After his stint in the military in Alaska, he said he would never have harsh words. He is a great man, who did amazing things with his talent.
posted by Benway at 7:01 PM on December 16, 2015 [12 favorites]


I've said it before, but workmanlike or not if I had an original Bob Ross, I'd hang it front-and-center in my living room. As my art teacher friend jokes, "aircraft carrier, unicorn, and all."
posted by ob1quixote at 7:04 PM on December 16, 2015 [2 favorites]


We’ve got ourselves a keyboard, and on that keyboard we’ve got 26 letters—we’ll need all of them today

I can't be the only one who did ctrl-f z after reading that. And now feels like the author should have tried just a little harder.
posted by TedW at 7:10 PM on December 16, 2015


Soundtrack for reading this post: Happy Little Clouds
posted by Jacqueline at 7:15 PM on December 16, 2015 [3 favorites]


That video is a masterpiece.
posted by triggerfinger at 7:58 PM on December 16, 2015


The God comparison isn’t that farfetched.

He was always on the seventh channel, out of six total, but you never knew which one. Like his sudden trees, appearing from snow and clouds, he had a reassuring golden voice at those very desperate hours when there was nothing on, waiting to be discovered.
posted by Brian B. at 8:04 PM on December 16, 2015


It was then that he was painting you
posted by rhizome at 9:22 PM on December 16, 2015 [9 favorites]


Bob Ross served in the US Air Force from 1961 to 1981 in Alaska. Here's a photo of him in those days, and a pledge he made to himself upon leaving the military:

Having held military positions that required him to be, in his own words, "mean" and "tough," "the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work" Ross decided that if he ever moved on from the military, he would never scream again.
posted by fairmettle at 3:58 AM on December 17, 2015


Shoot, if you want bad stuff, watch the news.

I just love a man who says "Shoot."
posted by JanetLand at 5:55 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


Bob Ross was a great man. If I had to rank the great men of history, I'd place him just below Jim Henson (who in turn is just below Mister Rogers) and just above Jesus.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:33 AM on December 17, 2015 [3 favorites]


We did Bob Ross Night again this month. My attempt.
posted by brennen at 11:13 AM on December 17, 2015


There was supposed to be a cowboy leaning on a tree or some shit, but whatevs.
posted by brennen at 11:15 AM on December 17, 2015


Bob Ross Night is such a great idea. I think I'm going to organize one in 2016.
posted by triggerfinger at 1:54 PM on December 17, 2015


I definitely suggest adult beverages, if your crowd is an adult beverages kind of crowd, because it's actually a profoundly frustrating exercise for most people. Also quite a bit of fun, but seriously, really frustrating.
posted by brennen at 3:47 PM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


I like to believe that he and Rickie Lee Jones would have got on like a house on fire. Someone with skillz needs to make this the soundtrack to a Bob Ross video.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:18 AM on December 19, 2015


At least one of the remixes for "Little Fluffy Clouds" doesn't have the Rickie samples, so, you know, this could actually become a thing.
posted by rhizome at 11:30 AM on December 19, 2015


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