The Second Coming of Bob Ross
BOB ROSS might have called it a happy accident.
The itinerant painting instructor was making his way across the country in the early 1980s, looking for a place to film his work, when he walked into Muncie’s public television station. Ross asked to speak with the general manager and surveyed the surroundings. If the make-do studios of WIPB dismayed him, he never let on. Perhaps the cozy charm of the structure—a historic home repurposed for educational broadcasting—was exactly what he was looking for. Or maybe he was simply grateful to find someone who would help him get the word out about his anyone-can-do-it art classes.
Whatever brought Ross to Muncie, it was a lucky stop. From 1983 to 1994, WIPB filmed almost all 403 episodes of The Joy of Painting, distributing the halfhour program across the country and turning the bushy-haired artist into a pop-culture icon.
Ross died in 1995, but the series lives on, rerun on public television across the U.S. and broadcast in 23 countries around the world, accessible on You-Tube, Facebook, and Twitch. With his whisper-soft delivery, his half-hour masterpieces, and his calming insistence that everyone has talent, Ross seems like artistic kitsch personified. But last year, the DePaul Art Museum in Chicago featured his work in an exhibition, and—icing on the cake—the Smithsonian recently acquired four of his landscapes.
Like Fred Rogers, Bob Ross could look into
