The break room at Motivators is a common place to hang out and eat lunch, but the best part is that we have a television. Most daytime TV is limited to game shows and soap operas, which is usually enough to keep Motivators employees entertained. While we eat our sandwiches and sit around the table, we enjoy yelling at the people on Family Feud when they don't get the right answer, or laugh at the jokes told on silly sitcoms like According to Jim and King of Queens.
Recently however, I started taking a much later lunch and no one else is in the break room at that time. I am free to explore whatever channels that I want, and the usual game show entertainment just wasn't cutting it anymore. I decided it would be best to surf the channels, when I came across something on PBS that I had all but forgotten about. It was Bob Ross's old television program, The Joy of Painting.
As I watched Bob Ross paint on his easel, all the memories came flooding back of how I used to sit on the floor in front of the television and marvel at how easy he made it look. I was only 9 years old when the show ended due to Ross's passing away, but the show still had an impact on me. 15 years later as I watched, his soft strokes and soothing voice relaxed me the same way it used to.
The greatest thing about Bob Ross's show was the fact that he always maintained the notion that anyone watching could paint the same painting that he did if they just practiced and followed along. Of course, I know that is not true (I have tried painting along with him in the past, and though I consider myself extremely challenged in the art of painting I would imagine that most other novices would not be able to keep up either), but I always respected him for including the audience as part of the painting process. He made people feel like they were contributing something to the painting as it unfolded before your eyes.
At first his paintings would appear to be very basic, and the big picture would not come to life right away. He would say things like, "...and we'll just put a little green dab here, and another quick stroke here, and now you have your trees...happy little trees", but you couldn't see them yet. Then, he would make one or two more quick strokes and out of nowhere the most intricate-looking shrubs and bushes would magically emerge as if they had been there all along.
Bob Ross concentrated on painting images in nature without having to look at a photograph. He would just imagine serene mountain views and rocky stormy skies and seas, and that image would pass from his mind directly onto the canvas. It was almost as if the painter himself was just a vessel for which the art could be created, and he really was not putting much conscious thought into it at all.
I will continue to watch Bob Ross and The Joy of Painting as much as I can in the future, so that I can enjoy the beauty of his work while I eat my lunch. And maybe if I'm lucky, they will even let me set up an easel next to the vending machine so I can take another shot at painting some happy little trees.
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