By JAMES D. WATTS JR. Scene Writer on Jul 27, 2012, at 12:18 PM Updated on 7/27 at 12:18 PM
ARTS
Kitty Roberts, who has guided Tulsa's American Theatre Company since its inception, has been named the recipient of the Mary ...
Wes Studi, whose career has included memorable performances in the films “Last of the Mohicans,” “Avatar” and “Germonino,” ...
Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko Sunday was named the winner at the 14th Van Cliburn Internationaal Piano Competition, ...
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Sometimes, even Autotune can be used for good, rather than evil.
Perhaps you've already seen this video, which has been circulating around the Interwebs for a while -- a montage of snippets from the late Bob Ross' "The Joy of Painting" show, which ran for a decade or so on PBS, that turn Ross' painterly platitudes into an unnervingly catchy little song.
I don't remember watching Ross much during his heyday in the 1980s and '90s -- my mother, who took up painting about this time, was more impressed with William Alexander, he of "the mighty brush" who was also Ross' mentor.
In the 1990s, however, it was difficult to have anything to do with the art world and not encounter Bob Ross in some fashion -- from his beatific face, surrounded by a halo of frizzed hair on art supplies to the heated denunciations by other artists who created work that was technically superior to, and dealt with ideas more substantial than "happy little clouds," but which would never be at the heart of a $15 million enterprise.
But for all his bucolic landscapes and his pillow-soft was of speaking, Ross was really a conceptual artist -- someone for whom process was much more important than product, who believed that art was something any one could make. "Believe that you can do," so sings the video, "because you can do it."
So what do you want to do?
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