美国国家公共电台 NPR The Real Bob Ross: Meet The Meticulous Artist Behind Those Happy Trees

The Real Bob Ross: Meet The Meticulous¹ Artist Behind Those Happy Trees 

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The hypnotic voice, the poofy hair, the beard - Bob Ross passed away more than 20 years ago. But apparently³, he's as timeless as the happy trees he painted on his PBS show, "The Joy Of Painting." Time to get out those oil paints. Netflix is streaming episodes, which got our producer, Danny Hajek, thinking, what's Bob's story?

DANNY HAJEK, BYLINE⁴: For most of us, he's just a man and his canvas, wearing a partly unbuttoned chambray shirt and a halo of tight curls. Here he is with his almighty⁵ brush, painting mist around a mountain.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE JOY OF PAINTING")

BOB ROSS: I lived in Alaska for many, many years. And you see some of the most beautiful scenery there. God was having a good day when he made Alaska - beautiful.

HAJEK: These are landscapes out of his imagination.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE JOY OF PAINTING")

ROSS: In your world, you can do anything that you want. If you want this shrubbery and bushes and trees to come all the way across, then do it. Do it.

HAJEK: The way he talked, it felt so personal, and yet Bob Ross is a mystery. If you want to know about him, you'll have to seek out his business partner, Annette Kowalski. She has all the stories, and she can even tell you about that hair.

ANNETTE KOWALSKI: (Laughter).

HAJEK: The story goes that, when he moved down from Alaska, he didn't have much money.

KOWALSKI: He got this bright idea that he could save money on haircuts, so he let his hair grow. He got a perm and decided⁶ he would never need a haircut again.

HAJEK: So you're saying Bob Ross' natural hair was straight?

KOWALSKI: Oh, my goodness, yes. You haven't seen the pictures?

HAJEK: The perm became the company's logo. She says Bob hated it.

KOWALSKI: (Laughter). He did. He got tired of that curly hair.

HAJEK: Annette welcomed NPR into her home in Herndon, Va., surrounded by framed floral paintings on the wall, family portraits and an instructional book by Bob Ross on the coffee table. She was the one who discovered Bob Ross. It was 35 years ago, in the wake of a tragedy.

KOWALSKI: My oldest son was killed in a traffic accident. It was very difficult. I was so devastated⁷. All I could do was lay on the couch and watch television.

HAJEK: She watched a painter named Bill Alexander. He was big on PBS back then. And Annett's husband, Walter, was so desperate to get her out of the house he signed her up for a Bill Alexander painting class 900 miles away, in Clearwater, Fla. But Bill Alexander wasn't teaching. He passed his paintbrush off to some protege that no one had heard of.

KOWALSKI: I was very disappointed. I so wanted to paint with Bill Alexander. But my husband said, get up, get in the car. We're going.

HAJEK: Up front at the easel was some guy with a perm who went by Bob, but his painting was pretty good. And then he started talking, and he was comforting, like his forest landscape.

KOWALSKI: I was so mesmerized⁸ by Bob. Somehow he lifted me up out of that depression. I just think that Bob knew how to woo people. I said, let's put it in a bottle and sell it.

HAJEK: The Kowalskis took him to dinner at a fast food joint⁹ and brokered¹⁰ a deal right there. Annette became Bob Ross' manager. They packed up the paints, hopped¹¹ in his motorhome and hit the road. Annette bought ads in local papers, and Bob held seminars in shopping malls.

KOWALSKI: Maybe only one or two people would show up for a class.

HAJEK: They needed to generate some buzz. Annette though, why not set up a Bob Ross Hotline?

KOWALSKI: 1-800-Bob-Ross.

HAJEK: They filmed a commercial, then launched a TV show. And that's when Bob hit the big time.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE JOY OF PAINTING")

ROSS: Hi. I'm Bob Ross. And for the next 13 weeks, I'll be your host as we experience the joy of painting.

HAJEK: This grainy video is the first episode. His hair's not as big, but he's already using those familiar little Bob-isms that made him famous.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE JOY OF PAINTING")

ROSS: Let's have a happy little tree right in here. There he goes.

HAJEK: They aired over 400 episodes of "The Joy Of Painting," but most viewers weren't tuning¹² in to paint. We were watching Bob Ross to just watch Bob Ross - crisscrossing the canvas to paint the sky, drawing out his palette knife to blend the Prussian blue with Alizarin crimson¹³, painting a distant mountain and then whipping his brush against the easel to clean off the bristles¹⁴.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE JOY OF PAINTING")

ROSS: Shake off the excess.

HAJEK: Always with that classic catchphrase.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE JOY OF PAINTING")

ROSS: (Laughter). And just beat the devil out of it.

HAJEK: Thirty minutes later, he had his masterpiece.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE JOY OF PAINTING")

ROSS: We have a pretty nice-looking little sky. And there wasn't anything to it. Now then, let's get crazy.

KOWALSKI: He's making you think it's so easy. Well, let me tell you something, these are not as spontaneous as they look.

HAJEK: In fact, Bob made three of the same paintings for every episode - one for a reference that sat off camera, one during taping - that's what we see - and a more detailed¹⁵ one for his how-to books. The guy was meticulous.

KOWALSKI: Bob used to lay in bed at night, he told me. He rehearsed every word. He knew exactly what he was going to say on every one of those programs.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE JOY OF PAINTING")

ROSS: If you've painted with me before, you know without question that we don't make mistakes here. We just have happy accidents.

HAJEK: He was just so relaxed all the time. I asked Annette, what was the real Bob Ross like?

KOWALSKI: A tyrant¹⁶. You don't believe that? Do you really think this company would be as successful as it is if he didn't insist that everything be done a certain way? He insisted.

HAJEK: They had a business to look after. He was as much a businessman as he was a painter.

KOWALSKI: I don't want to leave the impression that he was rude or nasty. He just wanted things done his way. He was wonderful. He was really wonderful. I want Bob back.

HAJEK: After he was diagnosed with lymphoma, the two spent his last days sitting outside the hospital on a park bench by a lake.

KOWALSKI: And Bob was not always full of compliments, but he said to me, Annette, you are the wind beneath my wings. And that is what I'm left with, and it means so much to me.

HAJEK: Bob Ross died on July 4, 1995. He was 52. The company was left in the hands of Annette and Walter Kowalski. And Bob Ross Inc. is still an art-supply giant - paint and brush manufacturers, certified¹⁷ Bob Ross instructors¹⁸ and now a deal with Netflix.

KOWALSKI: I think I'm doing this just the way Bob would've wanted it done. I'm very proud of the fact. And I think Bob would be happy if he could see it now.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE JOY OF PAINTING")

ROSS: Tell you what, the old clock on the wall says it's about time to go for the day. I think, with that, we'll call this painting finished. And from all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless, my friend.

HAJEK: Danny Hajek, NPR News

1 meticulous   

adj.极其仔细的，一丝不苟的

参考例句：

• We'll have to handle the matter with meticulous care.这事一点不能含糊。
• She is meticulous in her presentation of facts.她介绍事实十分详细。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 almighty   

adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的

参考例句：

• Those rebels did not really challenge Gods almighty power.这些叛徒没有对上帝的全能力量表示怀疑。
• It's almighty cold outside.外面冷得要命。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

8 mesmerized   

v.使入迷( mesmerize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The country girl stood by the road, mesmerized at the speed of cars racing past. 村姑站在路旁被疾驶而过的一辆辆车迷住了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• My 14-year-old daughter was mesmerized by the movie Titanic. 我14岁的女儿完全被电影《泰坦尼克号》迷住了。 来自互联网

9 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

10 brokered   

adj.由权力经纪人安排（或控制）的v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的过去式和过去分词 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排…

参考例句：

• a peace plan brokered by the UN 由联合国出面协商的和平计划
• Your husband brokered the deal to go in, transfrer the assets and get our man out. 你丈夫后来插了一脚，把生意都抢了过去，我们的人也被挤了出来。 来自电影对白

11 hopped   

跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花

参考例句：

• He hopped onto a car and wanted to drive to town. 他跳上汽车想开向市区。
• He hopped into a car and drove to town. 他跳进汽车，向市区开去。

12 tuning   

n.调谐，调整，调音v.调音( tune的现在分词 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• They are tuning up a plane on the flight line. 他们正在机场的飞机跑道上调试一架飞机。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The orchestra are tuning up. 管弦乐队在定弦。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

13 crimson   

n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色

参考例句：

• She went crimson with embarrassment.她羞得满脸通红。
• Maple leaves have turned crimson.枫叶已经红了。

14 bristles   

短而硬的毛发，刷子毛( bristle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the bristles on his chin 他下巴上的胡楂子
• This job bristles with difficulties. 这项工作困难重重。

15 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

16 tyrant   

n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人

参考例句：

• The country was ruled by a despotic tyrant.该国处在一个专制暴君的统治之下。
• The tyrant was deaf to the entreaties of the slaves.暴君听不到奴隶们的哀鸣。

17 certified   

a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的

参考例句：

• Doctors certified him as insane. 医生证明他精神失常。
• The planes were certified airworthy. 飞机被证明适于航行。

18 instructors   

指导者，教师( instructor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The instructors were slacking on the job. 教员们对工作松松垮垮。
• He was invited to sit on the rostrum as a representative of extramural instructors. 他以校外辅导员身份，被邀请到主席台上。