Robert ‘Bob’ Ross is still alive in the printings still sold of his paintings and he has been gone seventeen years. He had a television show and he introduced thousands of amateur artists to the world of art. He would start a painting and quickly produce a gorgeous canvas in a short time. He said that “on the canvas, you have total power and you can move mountains.” He taught everyone the ease of painting as he called it.

You could purchase a kit with the directions on how to paint a canvas and he had millions of people doing so.

He had his trademark look of a bushy haired man and when he wanted to change it, he was told not to, because everyone was use to his look and calming tone while he was painting and you were watching him do it with such ease. Of course, he had the talents to produce gorgeous landscapes. It took him only thirty minutes to finish the painting.

One of his paintings was called “Forest of Happiness.” I loved the serenity and colors on this particular one. At the end of the show, you could purchase a kit with many tubes of paint, directions, a knife and possibly a few small canvases.

I knew of someone who did buy a kit and produced a nice painting from it. It was done not as quickly as Bob produced it, but it was nice and adequate, especially for a first time artist. He gave it to me.

He studied the ‘wet on wet’ technique which allowed him to produce completed art works in a short period of time. He had a light humor personality as he talked while painting. He had a gentle demeanor. He did mostly landscapes, clouds, trees, forests etc. He sent a video of how to do it and when he died, many of his paintings were donated to the PBS stations his program was on for over ten years. They in turn auctioned them off to bidders and the money helped to keep the stations functioning.

On Monday of this week, I went on Google to get some information and I realized that they were using his picture for what is called their Google Doodle which features a holiday sign with the word Google in it. If it is Thanksgiving, they may feature a turkey, food etc. On Halloween, tomorrow they may feature pumpkins and goblins.

When this popped up on Monday, I thought I had hit the wrong icon. Then I realized it was in honor of Bob and I researched it and it was to honor his 70^th birthday. He has been gone now since 1995. He made a great impression on the viewers who watched him paint with ease, fun and delight. He instilled in people who probably never thought of being artists, that he could paint and so could you. I see online there are prints of his paintings to be sold.

He often said that “to paint was to make love to the canvas.” That he did in his simple and inspiring shows.

Anything we do and we excel in is showing our love for that form of hobby or sport. We can show our accomplishments not only on a canvas as an artist does; but in many other things such as dancing, playing tennis or golf, sewing, jewelry making, baking fancy desserts, gourmet cooking or any other thing that makes us happy. We feel fulfillment and that we have obtained the fait accompli.

I knew of a woman who became a designer and sewer of ballroom dance dresses for lady dancers. She took her specialty of dancing herself and then designed dresses for other dancers. They are made with rhinestones, pearls, sequins, fancy materials and each one is different from the other ones. She has a nice business and is popular with ballroom dancers. She knew of other people doing this and in those days when she started out, they were out of town dressmakers and some were in England. It was thought you could only get a real pretty dress if you sent your measurements to England and they sent you the dress back and it was ninety percent finished. Then you had to take it here to another dressmaker to take a nip or tuck in it or if it came too long in length. It was a hard way of obtaining an expensive dress, so this woman decided to do it from start to finish and has made a fine business out of it and it is more convenient. Of course, now there are others that do it too and some women are talented enough to make the dress themself.

Many times people take their hobbies and turn them into businesses, like the dressmaker or Bob Ross.

My little specialty is writing articles about ballroom dancing, dancers, life when I was young and now life when I am old.

Each of us has tucked into our personality something maybe hidden there and we take it to a higher level. It can be for fun or for money; and it is nice when it appears to us on our horizon. My blind Uncle George, who I have written about often, took his knowledge of playing the piano and his quickness of performing any song he heard and he was able to play it for you. He joined for fun and for additional money to live on, a group, combo it was called and he performed at weddings, social parties and club events. He earned additional money and he loved it, because he was a performer of the highest quality. He was in demand and everyone knew him in this community. That was his fun job; his day job was working at Johns Hopkins Hospital as a medical transcriber. He was well known there for that too.

Sometimes, it takes us to become older to find this hidden talent and to seek it out and to achieve prominence in it, whether for pay or for fun. Sometimes, it surfaces when we are still young. Whichever way it shows up is a good way and as Bob Ross said, it was making love to something like a hobby or for work.

In work or hobbies or activities, it is nice to have some sort of love. Love of doing something that you alone can do yourself is certainly a nice goal.

As I heard a person commenting yesterday on our hurricane/storm as it was in its highest element around six P.M. Monday, October 29^th, he said it was “steam in a storm”. He meant it was in its top position and we can all be in our top position in anything we attempt, regardless of our now age. Our now age (I have authored this wording) is now and now is here and so are we and we can become the artist, architect, founder and designer of our own specific idea. Then the love of doing it is an important foundation of our life. It becomes our own ‘canvas’ and our own unique painting of an idea, an ideal and identity.