Melancholy Trees

By Gordon Hopkins Growing up, there were probably TV shows your parents didn't want you watching. Especially if you grew up when TV was transitioning from the wholesome family fare of the 50s to the “more adult” late 60s/70s programming, with sex and violence and adult themes. The shootouts and car crashes of “Starsky and Hutch” were far too violent for impressionable young brains. Better to stick to programming intended for kids, like Saturday morning cartoons, where the little ones could watch Bugs Bunny drop an anvil on Elmer Fudd's head.My folks were as fussy as some about the TV my sister and I watched as kids. There was, however, one show my father did not want me watching. He didn't outright forbid it, but he made it clear he felt watching it was not good for me.Bob Ross' “The Joy of Painting.”This is very much on my mind today as I just learned that the very first painting Ross did on his now iconic show is up for sale and the price it is expected to fetch is $9.85 million.How much? Did I read that right? Yep, that's the number CNN quoted: $9.85 million.The memories of Bob Ross' voice extolling the simple pleasures of “happy little trees” and insisting that there are no such things as mistakes, just “happy little accidents,” is weirdly soothing to a generation now living in the era of social media, where digital mistakes live forever.My father was a professional artist. By “professional,” I mean he got paid. He sure as heck didn't get paid $9.85 million, but he made a few buck here and there. He actually made a living at it in his younger days. Making a living that way is a hard thing to do, but he did it. At least, until he had the misfortune to get involved with an unfortunately fertile female (my mother) and found himself with a family to support and need for a more stable income.Even after he got a “real job,” he still painted and still got paid for it. Only then it was more of a sideline. He took a lot of commissions from men who wanted nudes of their wives. (It was the 70s, after all.)Alas, most of my father's works are hanging over other people's sofas, since he sold most of his paintings. I do have a few. Hanging on my walls is a seascape, a European cafe scene, a winter scene, an old-timey still life with a glass of wine and grapes, and most of all, trees.My father studied a lot of different artists' styles, including Bob Ross, and experimented with a lot of different subjects and styles. I don't think I would call my father's trees happy. Most of trees seem more melancholy to me.So he did watch Ross' show on occasion, but he didn't want me watching it. Why?Well, I think my father hoped I would develop my artistic skills and, perhaps, even become a (professional) artist. I did (do?) have a bit of talent in that area. I created some artwork for college classes that, perhaps, had potential, but I never really had the patience or discipline to develop it.Anyway, it can be dangerous to watch another artist with an already well-established approach. It can be very easy to use those techniques as shortcuts and, as a result, bury your own style in someone else's.I didn't get it at the time but now I do. The same thing can happen to writers.I don't have a lot of souvenirs left over from my childhood, but I have the important things: my father's advice and some melancholy trees.

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