Happy Clouds, Happy Trees: The Bob Ross Phenomenon by Kristin G. Congdon, Doug Blandy, Danny Coeyman (review)

When I was first asked to review Happy Clouds, Happy Trees, my first thought was how this phrase “Happy Clouds …” was a part of my own regular lexicon, thanks to the hours that I had watched Bob Ross on Iowa Public Television when growing up. Yet I wondered what a serious text about Bob Ross could present its audience—was this a joke of some sort? The authors of the text, Kristin Congdon, Doug Blandy, and artist Danny Coeyman, acknowledge this as a potential reaction from their audience given their topic is the seemingly joyful television artist who encouraged millions of viewers to paint, and whose reputation the formal art world suggests may belong to the realm of kitsch. Quickly, it became apparent to this reviewer that this text is no prank. Rather, Happy Clouds, Happy Trees presents a compelling argument about the significance of Bob Ross culturally and socially, and in the realm of arts education. The authors’ smart engagement with emergent and established theories of aesthetics and art practice relative to art education pedagogy, as well as their use of a cultural lens to situate the “phenomenon” of Bob Ross in the larger contemporary cultural milieu, results in a text that “joyfully” shines.

The first chapter serves as an introduction to the text and sets up the question: How do the Bob Ross legends; the Bob Ross, Inc. brand; and the Bob Ross legacy contribute to a deeper understanding of art-making practice, teaching, and the cultural implications about meaningful civic and social participation in an increasingly global world? Using fieldwork and research methods associated with folklore, art criticism, and cultural and material culture studies (p. 8), the authors follow a unique path through the remaining chapters to tease out the nuances suggested by this big question. Divided into four parts, these chapters are grouped by (1) The Life and Times of Bob Ross, (2) The Legendary Life of Bob Ross, (3) Reflections on Bob Ross and His Work, and (4) Bob Ross Lives.

While this book creates opportunities to think deeply about interesting and important questions, the book does not present a full or complete biography of Bob Ross. If anything, the main “characters” of this text remain firmly a part of legend and marketing. In many ways, the work is more compelling for this very point. In fact, the person “Bob Ross” and the character marketed by “Bob Ross, Inc.” are carefully parsed through the writing. The authors reference the controlling and legal interests of Bob Ross, Inc. with such frequency, it suggests a larger point that they can make about commercial interests read against the philosophy of Bob Ross as it is communicated in other, unofficial channels and through their own analysis of his television show The Joy of Painting. The authors make clear how Bob Ross, Inc. has affected certain editorial decisions. As a reader, I had the feeling that Bob Ross, Inc. was reading over my shoulder. The incessant references may have betrayed a thinly veiled frustration of the authors with this organization, yet the authors were also able to effectively portray how systems such as this promote and control public celebrity and its associated products and images.

The real strength of the text comes to light in the third and fourth sections, where the authors assess Bob Ross as a teacher, and consider the legacy of his program and network. It is here that the text’s deeper sophistication in light of the topic emerges. Just as Bob Ross used a 30-minute program to make accessible something that often was categorized as elite or too challenging for “anyone” to do, this text is sophisticated in its engagement with complex theories of art and aesthetics, and considers the cultural politics of the art world with clear writing. Bob Ross eschewed pretentiousness and [End Page...