The Journey Begins

In May of 2009, with a law degree in hand, I left the East Coast and moved to Alaska on a boy becomes a man, self-discovery soul sojourn. Through a twist of events, I ended up in Nome for a yearlong clerkship with the Superior Court. Nome’s long winters and off-the-road system solitude was the perfect setting for a life vacation, where I could hide out and make art while reflecting on the past three years of seemingly endless studying and stress induced booze and sex.

I refer to my time in Nome as my own seven years in Tibet. I spent a lot of time pondering what I wanted out of life and how I was going to go about getting it. Most of this was done through pot and samurai movies, long and frequent letters back and forth to a pen pal, and quite a few “self-help” books. Mind you, these were not the bullshit, Purpose Driven Life, Tony Robbins, or get rich quick books, but rather about the thought process of a successful person. Think and Grow Rich, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and One Bullet Away: The Making of Marine Officer were three of my favorites. Self-improvement has become my focus.

I recently read a piece in Wired magazine by Matthew Honan about the proliferation of immersive, first-person gimmick books, otherwise known as stunt books. These are titles like Julie/Julia, where a young woman cooks her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking or Just Do It, where a 14-year married couple has sex every day for 101 days. For you television watchers, think Morgan Spurlock’s 30 Days. People love these stunts and occasionally there is actually a point to them. That is that the person doing the stunt may actually learn something about himself and come out a better person.

On a recent lazy Saturday, I popped in a dvd containing series 23 of The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross that I had procured from the internet. Everybody knows Bob Ross as the happy clouds guy. His soothing voice, love of squirrels and seemingly superhuman ability to paint a landscape in 28 minutes is legendary. However, it is his theories on art and life snuck in between directions to gently tap the ½ inch round brush into cad yellow that I find amazing.

Bob Ross is an egalitarian, populist painter. He wants everybody to paint. For him, there is absolutely no pretention or arrogance to art. Bob Ross wants everybody to escape into pure right brain activity – submersion into a world of art. There are no mistakes in Bob Ross’ world, only “happy accidents.” There is nothing to pull you out of the zone. He wants to remove all worries, troubles and stress when painting. It is escapism.

I want that escapism. My forays into art has always been heavily influenced by graphic design or craft oriented. My love, screen printing, is a lot of choosing and placing fonts and manipulating images, very left brain. My painting is very pop art inspired: precise lines, bold colors and it is all basically laid out before hand. Likewise, jewelry making, sculpting and illustrated paper projects are planned works. None fully immerse me into world of pure creation.

Therefore, I am trying Bob Ross’ method. And it is a method, not a style. It is a tool to achieve painting nirvana. Watching the show, it is clear that Bob Ross knows his materials very well. He knows the dryness of his paints, what happens when he mixes them, and how they react when put on canvas. By perfecting the method, your artistic mind is allowed uninterrupted freedom to express itself.

We will see what happens. The worst result is that I find out that landscape painting is not for me. Perhaps I will be good. Alaska needs to be painted. The tundra is begging for it. And let’s face it, Bob teaches you how to paint Alaska. The majority of his paintings come straight from the time he spent up here while in the Air Force. Yes, Bob was a military man for 10 years. Also, I want to paint for the sake of art, but I can’t help but think that if you were to slap a few moose, musk ox or fishermen in his paintings they would sell like hotcakes to the summer tourists on 4th St. Perhaps, Bob Ross will make me a rich man.

The Bob Ross method needs to tested and documented. I like writing and am really getting into this blogging thing so I am taking on that task. I don’t know if learning to paint will be as enthralling or life changing as other self-experiments. I don’t know if anybody cares that I am doing this or will read this blog. All I know is that this blog will force me to stick with the program. I often fizzle out on projects so to counter that I am posting pictures and updates on my progress. I hope you enjoy my journey into The Joy of Painting.