#ROSSology: Happy Little Tears

A line you’ll often hear said when visiting Minnetrista Museum & Gardens is “the importance of place”.

That’s never more true than the Bob Ross Experience in the L.L. Ball home on the 40-acre campus along the White River.

It’s become a premier destination to #PaintLikeBobRoss, because it’s where Bob painted and The Joy of Painting® was filmed.

I’ve blogged before about how special this place is.

Even the May 29, 2023 issue of People Magazine recognizes the location as one of the Top 25 places to visit this summer.

Every time I’m there, without fail, I meet the most wonderful new friends. From countless U.S. states and across the world. A recent demo I did there included a couple travelling from Ireland!

Prior to the start of the 2023 Memorial Day Weekend, I did another run of sold-out classes in the workshop.

My painters were from all over the United States again — Massachusetts, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.

Ohio was represented in the final class by a mother, Theresa, and her young-teenage son, Jayden, who was celebrating his birthday.

The duo drove about two hours from Lima for the Friday night workshop, then back home for Jayden’s Saturday birthday party.

There’s something truly magical at the Bob Ross Experience. I’m grateful for every opportunity to be there, especially in the painting workshop sharing Bob’s legacy and painting style. It’s the most fun I’ve had in a long time.

As the Friday night class started, I met Jayden. The little man in his black-rimmed glasses had a smile that would grab any room.

When I started the class and my story with Bob, Jayden’s eyes got really big. He was tapping on his mom’s shoulder silently mouthing the words “he knew Bob, he knew Bob”.

Jayden was experiencing The Joy of Painting® for the first time thanks to his mom. What an incredible birthday gift to introduce — dare I say open — a whole new world for her son.

After applying our liquid white and dropping in a happy little phthalo blue sky, I felt Bob for this time in this class.

I walked over to Jayden’s front row seat and said “I hope tonight I can be for you what Bob was to me.”

Our connection was instantly molded, just like when I met Bob for the first time many years ago.

Throughout the class, I was naturally drawn back to Jayden, making sure he was grasping the techniques and having fun, because I knew this mattered. This was formative. I had a responsibility.

And let me tell you, he was quite the happy little painter.

He asked questions, soaked up the instruction and even made sure he understood the brush strokes.

Determined he was. He knew the Bob-isms, asked about our relationship and everything Bob. My heart was full.

The rest of the painters in the class sensed what was happening, too. There was a little future painter in the workshop and everyone knew something special was building.

I had to help Jayden catch up a few times, but he certainly did. By the end of the class, as the group was pulling the masking tape off their paintings, I led them in singing Happy Birthday to him.

“I didn’t know when I came in if I could do this,” Jayden said with a smile. “This was so much fun. Thank you.”

As the last of my class was taking their masterpieces and heading down the winding wooden staircase in the L.L. Ball home, Jayden and his mom were gathering their things before the drive home.

That’s when I felt Bob for a second time tonight, and this time, I held tears back.

In a week where I announced my retirement from Ball State in 2024, I didn’t need a sign. But Bob and the Universe gave me one anyway.

Jayden hugged me when he asked for a picture with me. I hugged him back and then we walked to my easel. I took my painting down, handed it to him and said, “Happy Birthday young man, please keep painting.”

That’s what Bob did for me on more than one occasion. And that’s when the chills and this hypersense of awareness and importance of place nearly buckled my knees.

We kept talking, exchanged numbers and hugged one last time.

“Best birthday ever,” he told his mom.

As Molly from Minnetrista and I cleaned up the space, we both knew something really cool just happened.

But it’s when I got in my truck, after the class to head home, when those tears flowed for just a minute. Happy little tears.

Thanks, Jayden. Thanks, Bob.

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