Bob Ross: The Joy of Reading – Death in the Digital Age

Emma Johnson

Artist Statement

Bob Ross: The Joy of Reading Children’s Book

I was only about five months old when Bob Ross died in July of 1995. I would never see him live on TV and he would never produce new shows that I could watch. Yet, there he was on PBS when I was growing up, speaking in his ever-soothing voice with his permed hair and gently smile. The name “Bob Ross” is now ubiquitous with landscape painting and public broadcasting. The official Bob Ross website at www.bobross.com claims that his show, Joy of Painting, is the most recognized and watched TV show on art in history (“About Us”). Through the magic of technology, his reach is more widespread today, 20 years after his death, than it ever was when he was alive. There is a Bob Ross YouTube channel, Twitter account, and two season’s worth of his episodes are on Netflix. Kids continue to grow up watching him as PBS continue to re-run his episodes and they see him on their social media accounts. In this way, no matter how many years have passed since Bob Ross died, he will continue to be the most well-known painter of the 21^st century.

My children’s book, Bob Ross: The Joy of Reading, is designed to introduce kids to the wonderful presence of Bob Ross through a different medium than television. Using images from his shows, quotes from his episodes, and sound recordings, kids can grow up listening to Bob Ross and learn to read using his quotes. You can see his smile, hear his soothing voice, all in a kid-friendly format. All of the content is his own – I am merely the editor that worked to combine different senses together into one Bob Ross book. The true author still is Bob Ross.

The book was made using one particular episode in his Joy of Painting series, “Tranquil Dawn”. This episode combines many of the elements that are iconic in one of Bob Ross’s episodes: a peaceful nature scene, trees, and animals. Screenshots from moments throughout the episode were used to create the pages of the book, which were overlaid with recognizable and classic quotes from Bob Ross that can be applied to situations beyond this one episode. The strongest Bob Ross quotes were captured in sound and played through re-recordable sound modules placed in-between the pages to make it appear as if Bob Ross was speaking to the reader out from the pages of the book. In this way, the reader can follow along with the episode without having the watch it, but also take away larger lessons from Bob Ross beyond the scope of this episode, including ways to view nature, think about making mistakes, and creativity in art. The book is bound together with thick tape and covered by a dust jacket explaining the purpose behind this children’s book and a bit about Bob Ross’s paintings and show.

The use of audio tools in this children’s book are critical parts of maintaining the spirit and essence of Bob Ross over time. This way of preserving Bob Ross’s memory, by capturing his voice to be heard again and again from the pages of a book, was historically seen as a powerful way for the dead to be brought back to life. Jonathan Sterne discusses in his book, The Audible Past, about the power of recordings of dead people beyond their time, stating that “recording would enable transgenerational speech, where any “present” could address itself to almost an infinite range of possible futures (307-308). Bob Ross’s shows contain this omnipresent power – much of what he says can be saved and used again and again to apply to future generations, whether concerning painting or life itself. His phrases have become iconic, and when preserved in a digital audio form, they can live forever and continue coming from beyond the grave to leave their mark on others, even those that were not alive when he died. In addition, the stopping and starting of the audio, as well as occasional random playing and repeating of the audio, contribute to the haunted aspect of the book, where his voice appears to come straight out of the pages and haunts the book itself.

The visual aspects of the book primarily focus on Bob Ross’s image, as well as the images of the Tranquil Dawn painting he was creating in this episode. Blue painter’s tape is used liberally throughout the book, both as a binding to keep the pages of the book together but also to represent his profession as a painter and the important role that painting played his life and continues to play in the lives of the people who watch him and follow his work. In addition, the book jacket serves to collect the whole book together into one cohesive document. A title page is included, as well as a summary of the book on the inside flap, reviews of the book on the back cover, and an about the compiler section on the back flap. These sections all contribute to the overall aesthetic of the book, making it feel real and relatable to the reader.

There is no mention of death in my children’s book – it is not central to the idea and purpose of the book. His work transcends his own lifetime. I was not aware that he was indeed deceased until recently, within the last two years. I thought he had simply retired from working and making shows for PBS, choosing instead to spend his retirement painting in peace. Instead, I learned he died a premature death due to lymphoma at the early age of 52. His show ran for 11 years on PBS, meaning that is has been re-run on PBS for more twice as long as it originally aired for (Hajek). Much of his fame comes from his internet celebrity presence after his death, and his status now as a celebrity aids the proliferation of his shows and ideas around the internet. As Margaret Gibson puts it in her article on mourning in media culture, “some celebrity deaths do resonate in the lives of the individuals in ways that belie simple distinctions between real and fictional, myth and reality, public and private” (418). We choose to idolize our celebrities rather than forget about them, even after death, and that blurs the line between worlds. To those of us who love Bob Ross, we want to keep his spirit alive just as we remember him: in front of an easel, speaking to us about happy little trees, with permed hair that he hated. Talk of his death almost does not seem real, as we are entrenched in his TV show. “But he is right there, of course he isn’t dead”, we might think, representing the way that we can preserve someone at a moment in time forever.

This book preserves Bob Ross in the same moment, a time that we want future generations to remember him in as well. The information that many people actually know about Bob Ross beyond his paintings is limited, and the book is intentionally vague in keeping out personal details about his life. Through this book, Bob Ross is more than a person, he symbolizes an idea – representing the pleasure of nature, the peacefulness of art, the beauty in color. It would distract from the purpose of this book to also discuss his military career, his disease, and his life off camera. The simplicity about how the public remembers him is important in preserving his identity beyond the grave. Bob Ross has one major identity, no matter what he might think about it if he were still alive today. Painting is who he is, and who he will continue to be in the future.

This singular identity is also an important part of the marketing strategy of the children’s book. The landscape paintings, colorful and visually appealing, draw the kid’s attention, while the focus on Bob Ross and his art also attracts the parents. In this way, both the children and the parents are captivated by the book and eager to buy and learn from it. Parents are motived to use it because they want to pass a cultural icon from their generation to their kids, while the children may be intrigued by the colors, art, nature seasons, and animals pictured. Children’s books can often leave long lasting impacts on kids’ future passions, and in this way Bob Ross and his paintings can continue to be perpetuated in popular culture.

The Joy of Reading is haunted because Bob Ross seems to live in its pages, as if he never truly died at all, but was instead preserved in a different media than the one we traditionally call life. However, “haunted” typically carries the connotation of fear, danger, and revenge, which can be seen in many horror movies and novels. Bob Ross, on the other hand, is not presented in the book as someone who wishes to exact revenge on his audience or inspire fear for some sinister purpose. He is there doing what he always does, showing people how painting can cathartic, pleasing, and fun. In the case of this book, “haunting” is not associated with the horror media genre, but instead occurs as a way to continuing passing on his work to future generations.

Netflix and TV, in their own ways, are haunted with the presence of Bob Ross, but the children’s book is able to connect with people in a different way. In a similar idea as Edison’s spirit phone, which he hoped could enable you to directly contact your loved ones beyond the grace, the book makes it feel like Bob Ross is speaking with you directly, rather than addressing a wide TV audience (Zarrelli). This allows for a deeper and more impactful experience for the consumer of the book. In addition, the children’s book will be able to reach people that may not be affected by Bob Ross’s online media presence. In this more technologically driven world, where TV and social media are crowded with gory, dramatic, and visually stunning programs, Bob Ross’s painting programs do not stand out for their intensive program. It could be likely that kids today never watch Bob Ross on TV because there are simply thousands of more engaging shows they could be watching instead. A children’s book allows kids to interact with Bob Ross in a different way than they might otherwise, so Bob Ross can continue to pass his message and his passions on in different ways to more technologically-dependent kids. Then, when they are hooked on Bob Ross because of the book, they can find him on Netflix, YouTube, and the other online media sites that he has become so integrated in.

Works Cited

“About Us.” Bob Ross Inc. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2017.

Gibson, Margaret. “Death and Mourning in Technologically Mediated Culture.” Health Sociology Review; Abingdon 16.5 (2007): 415–424. Print.

Hajek, Danny. “The Real Bob Ross: Meet The Meticulous Artist Behind Those Happy Trees.” NPR.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2017.

Sterne, Jonathan. “A Resonant Tomb.” The Audible Past. Durham: Duke University Press, 2003. Print.

Zarrelli, Natalie. “Dial-a-Ghost on Thomas Edison’s Least Successful Invention: The Spirit Phone.” Atlas Obscura. N.p., 00:00 400AD. Web. 1 Apr. 2017.