Slide Text
Thirty Days, Thirty Minutes, Thirty Paintings

The series of works that compose this piece are based on “Television’s Favorite Artist Bob Ross“ and his acclaimed public television show The Joy of Painting.  Rather than a parody of the program, these paintings, videos and performance are the product of a careful examination of Ross and the show. As such, “Thirty Days, Thirty Minutes, Thirty Paintings” exposes a range of contrasting issues, both in contemporary art and in the popular standards of art valuation. High and low art, the academically trained and the autodidact, product and labor, are each presented and re-presented here, and the unique confluences and contradictions were the impetus for this work.  Bob Ross, with his melodic, encouraging, empowering, monologues, seems at first an unlikely source to initiate an investigation of social structures of value, and validation. When one picks up a brush and begins to “paint along with him” what is revealed, however, is that a great deal more is going on here than mere “happy little trees”.

The scenic landscapes that Bob Ross created by the thousands display a clear visual association to a style of art known as the Hudson River School.  Artists including Thomas Moran, Sanford Robinson Gifford, Albert Beirstadt and Asher B. Durand established this American landscape painting style in the mid 19th century.  It defined creating naturalist paintings through direct observational study and technically developed, representational, plein air (open air; in the environment; alfresco) drawing and painting.  It is the art historical relevance, and academic validation, of the Hudson River School, which provides Bob Ross with the popular approval his painting enjoy. Visual associations to this style, however, are the only similarity shared between the two, as Ross paints in a black-box studio in Muncie, Indiana, far from the mountains and seascapes that he depicts, and without observational drawings. Ross further utilizes, and instructs in, simple brush techniques that allow for the creation of natural forms without laborious technical skills development. The Hudson River School’s time-intensive creative process further challenges the connection to Ross’ popular 26-minute pieces. 

With the piece “Thirty Days, Thirty Minutes, Thirty Paintings” I return Bob Ross’ product to its roots in the Hudson River School tradition.  By creating a stage set similarly to the one in The Joy of Painting, I have created an immersive (natural) environment in which to observationally and representationally create the works of Bob Ross.  By methodically following along with Ross, painting exclusively within the time restraints of the show, and only when I can see Ross painting (not when animal slide shows or videos are playing) I seek to introduce a contemporary digital translation of the Hudson River School ideas.  The final product in this work, however, is not a painting, but rather the action of recreating, which is presented in the exhibition videos.  This structure ultimately calls into question the product of Bob Ross’ own actions, and whether what we are all truly valuing in Ross’ work are the paintings, or The Joy of Painting.