Happy Clouds, Happy Trees: The Bob Ross Phenomenon

This was a fairly good book to read when it comes to an analysis of Bob Ross and why he paints, how he paints, and how he and his paintings are received in the “Art World”. One of the things that was really creepy was that they equated some of what Bob Ross said and did to “Seduction”?! A quote from the “Seduction” chapter, “On the TV screen, the ability we have to watch Bob paint teeters toward the erotic. Without shame, in his darkened studio, Bob would often tell us to “make love to the canvas”. His language was spiced with phrases like “liquid white”, “big old bush”, “makes me feel good”, and “”caress her”.” I have watched probably half of his “Joy of Painting” shows, and I have never thought any of it as “erotic”.Unfortunately when they compare him to Thomas Kinkade, an artist that paints landscapes among other things, and has made a great deal of money doing it, they play the race card and Christian cards. They criticize Mr. Kinkade for not having people of color in his paintings, and Christian symbolism in others. Of course, they don’t criticize any artists of color who don’t put any whites in their paintings. That would have been the fair thing to do. In a free country like America, people should be allowed to paint whomever they want without criticism like this.So overall, an okay book with some biases, that gives insight into Bob Ross the man and Bob Ross,Inc..

Happy Clouds, Happy Trees is part academic scholarship, part biography and part love letter. The authors do an excellent job of making an argument for Ross' inclusion in the discourse around contemporary art theory and the importance of considering him a savvy, prescient conceptual artist with much more going on than peddling kitsch. The simple, clever illustrations by Danny Coeyman depict Ross in several different art historical periods. They help us to temporarily place the work of Ross amongst different works in the canon to look at Ross' practice from a new perspective, but they are also reverential and touching. Although Happy Clouds, Happy Trees is a scholarly text published by a university press, the writing is accessible and engaging. Recommended to anyone interested in contemporary art that grew up with Bob Ross at home.

This is not a biography of Bob Ross. It’s about his rise to “stardom”, his popularity, even today. All the art is by students, somewhat in his style.

This book isn't a biography. The chapters are broken down into sections and a lot of those sections contain contact info or web links. Also, the author is giving a review on Bob Ross and his life, not information. It often says things like "I think that" or "I liked that". It's also an un-official book and the author states multiple times that they are not connected to Bob Ross Inc. Don't recommend this book.

Great academic look at Bob Ross—very helpful for gathering information to use in a lecture on Ross.

Now I want my friend who I bought it for to loan it to me. Fascinating​ story.

Gifted this book. Reader I gifted it to enjoyed reading it,

If you know somebody who's into Bob Ross, give them this book as a gift.

Very disappointed.

great book