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December 2014 Vol. 52 No. 4


University Press of Mississippi


The following review appeared in the December 2014 issue of CHOICE. The review is for your internal use only. Please review our Permission and Reprints Guidelines or email permissions@ala-choice.org.

Humanities
Art & Architecture

52-1783
N89
2013-33562 CIP
Congdon, Kristin G. Happy clouds, happy trees: the Bob Ross phenomenon, by Kristin G. Congdon, Doug Blandy, and Danny Coeyman. University Press of Mississippi, 2014. 188p index afp ISBN 9781617039959, $30.00.

Bob Ross (1942-1995) is best known as the host of The Joy of Painting, a PBS television series broadcast from 1983 to 1994, accessible today through reruns and YouTube.  During the show, Ross would teach viewers how to paint with a wet-on-wet technique aimed toward quick results.  Ross's work—generally labeled as amateur art—is not the kind typically studied by art historians and critics, whom Ross likely would have characterized as elitist.  But Congdon (emer., Univ. of Central Florida), Blandy (Univ. of Oregon), and Coeyman (independent scholar) note that Ross is as popular today as he was when he was alive.  They argue that a comprehensive understanding of Ross's importance must consider perspectives beyond his art.  Thus they look at his roles as a media star, teacher, performer, and healer.  Though this is a university press publication, with thorough footnotes, it is written in a style that will appeal to a popular audience.  Illustrations include portrait drawings by a coauthor that pose Ross as Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Picasso, and other artists.  Thus the authors, perhaps by intent, match their approach to their subject in a style that the subject would appreciate.  This book will be especially valuable for folk art collections.

--E. H. Teague, University of Oregon

Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.