Making Choices - What Bob Ross Taught Me

My SO loves The Joy of Painting. Every Tuesday night, he settles in to watch Bob Ross create a nature scene. If you've never seen it, it's quite fascinating. It's a painting show, with a complete work created in 30 minutes - no edits. The paintings are always nature scenes - mountains, beaches, rivers, etc. Mr. Ross has a soothing voice and a gentle demeanor. He is always so cheerful, and makes painting look so easy. He works fast, but never seems to hurry.

I sat down to watch last night. It was a beach scene. Ross talks a lot about choices, saying things like, "Just decide where you want your clouds", and "I'm showing the general idea, you have to make it your own". That's what all art, and ultimately life, is all about, right? We have to just decide what to do and do it. Then we can notice how our choices opened or closed doors. Bob Ross says, "We don't have mistakes here, we just have happy accidents."

While watching last night, there was a moment where he started in on the water, making the waves. After a few strokes, I was skeptical. I admit, I was thinking to myself that those didn't look like very convincing waves. Several strokes later, they revealed themselves. There wasn't even a moment where he put one last color on, and I went, "Ooooooohhhhhhh". It was gradual, but all of a sudden, there it was. And they were beautiful. I realized that I wasn't trusting in him or the process. Often times, that happens in our art. We're in the middle of creating, and it seems like a huge mess. That's where paying attention and trusting in ourselves and what we do comes in handy. That's the moment where I want to walk away. I'm practicing pushing though to see what comes out - and accepting that it might be terrible.

Another thing that struck me was the paintings themselves. Bob Ross was (he died in 1995) a talented painter who loved what he did. His paintings are representations of what he loved - nature. Perhaps he painted other things off the show, I don't know. His art is not trying to be sensational or provoke, but almost seems to be trying to calm. He painted things that were "nice", and it's definitely about the process, something that's hard to remember. I get so worked up about wanting to make my art "say something important", that I forget about the process and get so concerned about what my dancing says to other people.

Thanks Bob, for teaching me about choice making, trust, and the process.