The Mysterious Life of Bob Ross…Still a Mystery. But Now We can Watch the Very First “Joy of Painting” Episode.

A gross disservice. A disservice to you – dear reader, to me, and most of all to the legend himself, Bob Ross.

I have spewed 312 posts on this very blog, and not one of them has referenced the venerable Mr. Ross.

However, as Bob would say, “there are no mistakes; just happy accidents.” No need to dwell in the past. Let’s celebrate the present.

A present that now offers the ability to consume the very first Bob Ross episode of The Joy of Painting

Awesome.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/oh5p5f5_-7A[/youtube]

In fact, we can now joyously watch the entire first season of The Joy of Painting

[youtube]https://youtu.be/RInDWhYceLU?list=PLAEQD0ULngi69x_7JbQvSMprLRK_KSVLu[/youtube]

Actually, 70 full episodes of Bob!

[youtube]https://youtu.be/kasGRkfkiPM?list=PLAEQD0ULngi67rwmhrkNjMZKvyCReqDV4[/youtube]

I’ve missed Bob. His soothing voice, cool as a cucumber attitude, amazing afro…and happy trees.

I was coming up during Bob’s heyday. I’m pretty sure he was my babysitter on a few occasions.

I didn’t paint. I just watched. That’s how cool Bob is.

I never knew any backstory on Bob. He was just a groovy dude jamming out rad paintings at the speed of light.

Turns out he’s a bit of a mystery. And that just adds to his cool.

Here’s a great article about Mr. Ross: The Surprisingly Mysterious Life of Famed Artist Bob Ross, and some interesting Bob facts…

  • Nobody ever really asked Bob Ross to do any interviews and he only gave a handful of them over the course of his life. “I never turn down requests for interviews. I’m just rarely asked”.  Missed opportunity!
  •  PBS once lost track of him until Ross called to let them know he’d moved to Orlando after the fact.
  • His company, Bob Ross, Inc, today is fiercely protective of their intellectual property and Bob Ross’ privacy, even in death.
  • Ross left school in the 9th grade to support himself as a carpenter with his father.
  • When he hit age 18, Ross joined the Air Force which saw him relocated from Florida to Alaska.
  • He disliked the job because it forced him to be “mean.”Ross left the Air Force after two decades of service, supposedly quipping that he’d never yell or raise his voice again.
  • Ross found inspiration after watching a show called, The Magic of Oil Painting hosted by artist, Bill Alexander.
  • Ross would later use an almost identical format for his show, The Joy of Painting, which greatly annoyed Alexander.
  • After leaving the Air Force, Ross returned to Florida in the early 1980s intent on seeking out Bill Alexander to learn the finer points of wet-on-wet painting. Alexander, who was an art teacher in his spare time, happily taught Ross everything he knew about painting, blissfully unaware that he was training his soon to be arch-nemesis.
  • With money tight, Ross made the bizarre decision to have his hair permed, exchanging the military crew cut he’d sported for two decades for his now iconic afro. Ross’ reasoning was that if he permed his hair, he’d save money in the long run because he’d no longer need to pay to have his hair trimmed once a week. Ross kept the ‘fro for the rest of his life, though grew to dislike it in his later years.
  • Exactly how Ross went from “perming his hair to save five dollars” to “being on TV” isn’t clear.
  • When the time came to film the first episode of The Joy of Painting, Ross made the conscious decision to speak as though he were talking to a singular viewer, giving the illusion that he was giving a private lesson.
  • Ross almost exclusively wore jeans and a casual shirt throughout the show’s run, a look he felt would be “current” regardless of how many years later an individual episode was aired.
  • Ross was never actually paid for appearing in the show and he never sold a single painting featured on it. The show was instead used as a vehicle to promote Ross’ teaching business, interest in which exploded after the show first aired. Over time, the business expanded to include Bob Ross branded brushes, paint, supplies, etc., all making Ross a millionaire.
  • As for his paintings, with the exception of the ones he sold to tourists during his time in Alaska, Ross gave away virtually all of them made during the show’s 403 episode run. As for the thousands of other paintings Ross made during his life, many of them were similarly given away or, when Ross became a household name, given to various charitable causes to be auctioned off.

Interested in hanging an original Bob Ross in your humble abode? Good luck.

Bob may have been charitable with his paintings, but the general public sure isn’t. Here a screen shot of the top two B. Ross paintings on Ebay – yes, that’s $20K+!!!

Related Bob Ross links…

 

RVCA – Behind the Non-Brand

The Dude is not a fan of brands in general. Who cares about who makes what. Rock what you like regardless of a name attached to it.

As the wise men from Run DMC once said, “Calvin Klein ain’t no friend of mine; don’t want nobodies name on my behind.”

To avoid branding entirely these days is pretty much impossible. Brands are everywhere. We have to be very selective. But the one brand I not only don’t mind rocking, but actually enjoy promoting is RVCA.

RVCA has some of the best duds going, but beyond that, these cats are super rad. They are more of an “artist network” than a brand, and they are all about promoting diverse talents, rad gear and gnarly art.

This is a pretty cool behind the scenes of what the brand – I mean artist network – is all about…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcKiQQnSU48[/youtube]

(Tip ‘o the hat to Desillusion Magazine.)

Let’s Get Creative

create something!

create something!

The world is a crazy place. Frankenstorms, economic roller coasters, political wastelands, but you know what? We are lucky enough to live in some amazing times.

Forget the craziness. Let’s focus on being creative.

I came across a couple great blog posts today that offer some creative inspiration. So, I figured I’d pass the inspiration to you.

First, here’s a post by Seth Godin that offers some much needed perspective.

Seth is good; amazingly creative. But I tend to shy away from him because he’s become a bit to popular for my liking – the Dude tends to have an irrational aversion to anything mainstream. Sorry Seth.

But I love these thoughts…

  • There’s never been a better opportunity to step up and make an impact, while we’ve got the chance. This generation, this decade, right now, there are more opportunities to connect and do art than ever before. Maybe even today.
  • It’s more important than ever [t]o persist and make a dent in the universe[.]
  • We’ve all been offered access to so many tools, so many valuable connections, so many committed people. What an opportunity.

It’s time to create. It’s time to “Make Good Art.” It doesn’t matter what it is. Just create.

Numero dos, a post by the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) for TwitPic, Steven Corona. I just started following Steve’s blog the other day (can I call you Steve? Thanks. :)). I think this is the first post I’ve received. But it’s a gem.

Steve synchronictically builds on Seth’s post by offering some advice to get the creative juices flowing

  • You don’t need to be an expert to solve a problem and it doesn’t need to be perfect the first time. Cut before your measure.
  • Block off a chunk of time; 6 [hours] is good 12 is better.
  • Write out as many actionable steps as you can in 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, stop. You now have your plan.
  • When you’re creating, Google is off limits.
  • When you set yourself up for success, creating, doing something actionable, is the easiest part.

Creativity. It’s magical. And we all have access to it. Use it.

The Dude, A Camera, & A Canvas

I’ve always said to Mrs. Dude that “anyone can be a photographer.” Since before the Mrs. picked up a camera and started her amazing photog career, I claimed digital cameras and Photoshop threw open the doors to any yahoo that wanted to claim their title as “professional photographer.”

An endless supply of mediocre photographers littering the interwebs tells me I’m right.

On the other hand, thousands of dollars in equipment, endless hours honing ridiculous technical skills, and an artistic eye that no money or time can buy tell me the Dude is dead wrong.

Mrs. Dude, you are truly rad!

So, I straddle the fence with my own photog skills. Am I just one of the masses with the luxury of a digital camera in hand? Or does the Dude have an eye money can’t buy?

On the fence?! Nah! I’m super rad…when Mrs. Dude is there to tell me what to do and edit my shots. 🙂

Last night we gathered up the Dude clan for a quick run to the beach so I could capture Mrs. Dude’s baby belly in the perfect light a sunset throws on the dunes at dusk.

The way I look at it, we only need one great shot to make the trip a success.

The Mrs. showed me a few pics, and I must say…I nailed it! With complete direction, of course. But now Mrs. D says we aren’t posting any yet!

Wha, wha, what?! The world deserves – no NEEDS – to see the Dude’s phtog skills.

Wait?! I think not.

Little Hands, Big Belly

Little Hands, Big Belly

Awesome, right?

Honestly, I’m so biased that I have no clue if it’s any good – my wife, my kids, my baby belly, and my shot. How could I not think it’s amazing?

But what I do know is that we need this hanging in our room for inspiration leading up to the big event a short two months away. A gorgeous canvas as a daily reminder of where we’re headed and why we’re going in that direction. I love it.

Luckily, I just scored some great canvas prints from PrintCopia.com, so I know where to get this jobby job taken care of.

The PrintCopia canvases are the shiz – heavy-duty,  well made, great picture quality…an all-around gorgeous print. Check out the rad shots of Little Dude flying we just hung up…

Little Dude Flying Canvas

Little Dude Flying Canvas

Hook it up if you have some great pics (or hire the Dude…I hear I’m a rad photographer).

By the way, PrintCopia also has car magnets, custom banners, & signs.

However, I will mention one tiny detail…

I have Mrs. Dude convinced I’m a “doer.” I’m up early gettin’ at it – whatever “it” may be, and I love to say that “I got stuff done” today. As I get older, the jobs keep piling up, so I guess I just keep on truckin’.

But the reality is that I’m pretty lazy at heart. My yearbook quote in high school was,

“I’m lazy. But it’s the lazy people who invented the wheel and the bicycle because they didn’t like walking or carrying things,” by Lech Walesa.

And I’m sticking to it.

I love to get ‘er done, but sometimes the laziness wins out, and this is one of those times.

The canvases from PrintCopia are gorgeous and of high quality, but I’m a bit dismayed to report that one of two canvases (i.e. 50%) arrived with a blemish right in the center of the picture. Nothing a little white paint can’t fix, but a factual review is a factual review. I submit to you evidence numero uno…

However, overall, these are fantastic canvas prints, and a trip to the post office to send it back just seems like a lot of work, so the Dude’s laziness has won out. We’ll make it work.

With that said, if PrintCopia wants to send a canvas of the Dude’s awesome photog skills displayed above to make up for the blemish, I’m happy to report to the masses of the great customer service. Wink, wink. Nod, nod. 😉

In the end, the lessons contained herein are…

  1. Hire Mrs. Dude for your pictures. The Dude is all talk and takes all necessary direction from the true brains in this relationship – i.e. the Mrs.
  2. Buy a canvas print for your home – your Mrs. will thank you…FYI – Christmas is right around the corner!

The Dude Has Always Wanted To…Blow Glass

If I have an idea, I tend to give it a whirl.

Thanks to a wise sage (Mr. S. Barry :)), I tend to live by the motto of “Be the Expert.”

Wise words, right? We’re all just faking our way through life. Regardless of how smart we might think we are, we have no clue. Zero. Nada. Zip! We are all just making it up as we go, so we might as well “be the expert.”

I love to tell Mrs. Dude that everything is easy….she loves it too. 🙂

I know that lots of stuff is pretty darn difficult, but a huge part of me does believe that everything is pretty easy when we put our mind to it. If someone else did it, odds are, you can too.

As a result of this can-do attitude, I tend to latch onto ideas that I have no business holding on to. Like blowing glass.

Blowing glass seems awesome, right?! Shaping molten glass into gorgeous designs. Awesome.

Where do I sign up?

Then I watch a video like this that reminds me that sometimes it’s ok to leave it to the “experts.”

Who knows, someday Mrs. Dude may end up with a mis-shapened glass vase crafted by the Dude in an overcrowded garage utilizing dangerously hot materials in dangerously hazardous ways, but for now, I’m cool with watching this dude create an awesome glass blown horse in all of 90 seconds…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFSB3-SzgoQ[/youtube]

Hat tip to The Kid for sharing the love.

Rad Drawings of New York City

NYC Hand Drawing

NYC Hand Drawing

Do you remember that “song” that talks about sunscreen. It’s not really a song. It’s more of a (fake) commencement speech set to music.

A dude with a rad name put it out in 1999, Baz Luhrmann…Baz…how cool?!

That song is 10+ years old, but it still sticks with me. Maybe because I was graduating in 1999 so I feel like he’s talking to me, but I dig the advice.

I’m not sure I agree with the whole”wear sunscreen” thing. I think there are some questions about the benefits of sunscreens. Clearly straight vitamin D is good for us, and we’re all vitamin D deficient. Perhaps we should be soaking up as much vitamin D as we can, without being burned of course. But I’m getting off subject…

The sunscreen song; I dig.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI[/youtube]

One of the pieces of advice in the song is “Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.”

I’ve never had the pleasure of living IN NYC, but I was awful close for a while. Unfortunately, I was in a dumpy part of Long Island enjoying a year of Law School. Right, not much “enjoyment.”

However, I did make time to visit “The City” a few times, and it’s amazing. I don’t ever want to live there, and even question a reason to visit anymore. Not really for the Dude, but I can see why people fall in love with NYC.

The skyline is HUGE. I grew up outside of Boston, and I’ve watched the Boston skyline driving into the city countless times. I use to think Boston was big…until I saw NYC. Wow. Giant.

And the energy is amazing. You can literally feel the energy of the city when you walk around. It’s impressive.

Thanks for the advice Baz. I’m glad I got to experience NYC, and I’m very glad I escaped its grip before it made me hard.

Even that little dose of experience has left me with an appreciation for the Big Apple…not much considering I’m a Boston fan, but I’m ok admitting there’s a wee bit of appreciation.

But to really appreciate the city, you need to see it drawn by hand…by two different people…completely unrelated experiences.

I came across the two below videos from unrelated sources, but they seem like a perfect match for a quick Dude post. So, here are a couple rad drawings of NYC…

The first one is an amazing drawing of the entire NYC skyline…from memory!

Here’s the description from The Kid Should See This:

Stephen has the amazing talent of drawing city skylines from memory. Having spent only a few hours in a helicopter flying from Brooklyn to the tip of Manhattan, he memorized the city skyline and headed back to a studio to begin his drawing. Stephen then spent the next 3 days sketching the skyline. The panoramic drawing will be featured on a billboard that will be displayed at JFK airport terminal.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fF-ZksUZ0Y[/youtube]

This second drawing/video is the NYC skyline from the view of the Empire State Building. Here’s the description of the video from Open Culture:

Give UK artist Patrick Vale 80 seconds, and he’ll show you his freehand drawing of New York City unfold in rapid-fire motion. Vale planted himself on the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building, looked outside his window, and began drawing, with his iPhone duct taped to a rostrum and recording the action. From start to finish, the drawing took, he says in a HuffPo interview, four to five days. He calls the drawing of the Manhattan skyline “Empire State of Pen.” The great Charles Mingus provides the soundtrack.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYl9e1jVXQ0[/youtube]

Amazing.

Best Day Ever? The Bob Ross Remix Hits the Streets

Bob Ross

Bob Ross

A few weeks ago I shared a remix of Mister Rogers. And I pondered the other great 80’s remixes I’d love to hear.

But I didn’t know it could be this good.

You know what’s hot in the streets right now?! The Bob Ross remix.

Mrs. Dude is slightly too young to understand Bob Ross. And I feel sorry for her.

Bob Ross was the man. He kept us company after school on many occasions.

Such a cool cat. It’s impossible to watch this video and not smile. I want to hang out with Bob Ross.

And his paintings are ridiculous. He would whip together some happy little trees, a happy mountain, toss in some happy clouds, and a happy little brook rolling down a hill passed a happy little house in minutes.

And he’d get his audience to believe that they could do it too. FYI – it’s not as easy as it looks. At least it wasn’t when I was eight.

Not to mention that AMAZING hair. Love the dude.

By the way, there were a bunch of Bob Ross episodes. I think he was on every afternoon. As a result, you would imagine there would be a bunch of Bob Ross paintings floating around. Nope. I’ve searched, and there are very few around at high prices. Bummer.

I’m saving my pennies for a Bob Ross original. It’s sure to tie the whole house together.

R I P Bob.

Classic…

  • “Believe that you can do it. ‘Cause you can do it.
  • “This is your world. You’re the creator.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLO7tCdBVrA[/youtube]

Make Good Art

Growing up, I never really considered myself an “artist.” But over the years, that’s changed.

The Dude is now a believer that everyone is an artist. We all have great art inside of us. In fact, everyone has absolutely brilliant and unique “art” just waiting to be tapped and shown to the world.

Life is art, and our daily actions are the brush strokes we’re using to paint the world around us. If we can take ourselves seriously as artists, and not sabotage our efforts with negative thinking, we’ll be amazed by the art that we create.

This commencement speech by Neil Gaiman at the Philadelphia University of Arts 2012 graduation is a great artistic motivator. I’m not all that familiar with Gaiman, but I’m a big fan after this great talk.

His simple message: “Make good art.”

And a great secondary message: “Let go. And enjoy the ride.”

Nobody else is you. Paint the world around you with your unique strokes. Everyday. All the time. And have fun doing it.

Thanks for the great motivation Neil!

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/42372767#[/vimeo]

“Buzz” Shares His Story Rules

Buzz

Buzz

Little Dude LOVES Toy Story. “Buzz. Buzz? Buzz?”

We must have watched “Buzz” 50 times. Easy.

Other than the awesome graphics, it’s impressive how amazing the Toy Story story-lines are.

I’ve never ventured into the world of fiction writing. Although, I think it would be very cool. But it’s a bit intimidating. Creating a great story from nada seems like a lot of hard work. With a good chance of the end result being crapola.

Luckily, we have help from Pixar – the writers of Toy Story. One of Pixar’s story artists, Emma Coats, recently tweeted a series of 22 “story basics.” Pretty great to get the inside scoop.

Not sure if I’ll ever head down the fiction path, but it’s nice to know I have some great basics.

Here’s the top 10, and you can find the full list here

#1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.

#2: You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different.

#3: Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.

#4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

#5: Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.

#6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?

#7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

#8: Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.

#9: When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.

#10: Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.

Hats off to Kottke.org for sharing another great link.

Automatic Drawing Machines. Who Knew They Were So Cool?

Two of my favorite blogs (Kottke.org & TheKidShouldSeeThis.com) put out a post with the below video of an automatic drawing machine yesterday. About an hour apart.

Think they read each other? They must right? Are they going to start reading the Dude? What’s up Kottke and The Kid? The Dudes are big fans. 🙂

But back to the automatic drawing machine. I would have cruised right by their posts if it didn’t show up on both blogs at relatively the same time. An automatic drawing machine just would not have grabbed my attention. Seems basic. Boring.

I was way off. The machines are basic, yes. But the results are far from boring. The automatic drawings are amazingly mesmerizing. As Kottke mentioned, the video seems too short. I could get sucked in for much longer than 1:45.

Automatic drawing machines. Who knew they were so cool?

Enjoy. It’s worth 1:45 of your life.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/31933085[/vimeo]

As a bonus, here’s another automatic drawing machine from The Kid.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/21999779[/vimeo]