Jerry Davich
Metro columnist
Author facebook Author twitter Author email Follow Jerry Davich Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Don’t have an account? Sign Up Today
“Make America Paint Again.”
On the Fourth of July, this will be the protest chant for J.J. Weinberg when he demonstrates alone outside the Trump Tower in Chicago. Friday marks the 30th death anniversary of Bob Ross, the popular painter, TV personality, and host of the PBS show, “The Joy of Painting.”
“I grew up watching PBS. Bob Ross isn’t just an icon. He’s a spiritual archetype. He’s the patron saint of paint,” said Weinberg, a graduate of the American Academy of Art in Chicago. “Bob taught that there is an artist hidden in each of us.”
Weinberg, a professional artist who lives in Valparaiso, will protest in costume as his artistic hero, Ross, known for his Afro perm hairstyle, calm demeanor and quirky catchphrases. His rise to fame emerged from the broad brushstrokes of financial support and international popularity from public media broadcasting.
People are also reading…
“The state of Indiana has already cut $3.7 million to PBS,” Weinberg said. “No PBS, no Bob Ross. It’s that simple. So now it’s my mission to stand up for the democratization of imagination.”
Raising money, raising a fist
Weinberg chose to protest outside Trump Tower because the Trump administration has stripped federal funding from Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio, under the allegation that all public media has a liberal bias. Or, as the White House put it in May, the government will no longer subsidize “entities that receive tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds each year to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.'”
Weinberg adamantly disagrees.
“Trump has also threatened to freeze $9.4 billion in federal PBS support,” he said.
PBS not only gave us Ross and his passionate joy of painting a better world.
“It gave us Mark Kistler, who taught me how to draw when I was a kid. It gave us Fred Rogers. It gave us LeVar Burton and an entire generation of permission to imagine,” Weinberg said. “When PBS is de-funded, imagination becomes a luxury, and media becomes a weapon for the highest bidder.”
Every episode of “The Joy of Painting” was filmed in downstate Muncie, where Ross made his anything-but-paint-by-number dreams come true. Weinberg has visited that city to meet, and paint with, Steve Ross, the late painter’s son. And to meet with Sally Schenck, the original director of “Joy of Painting.”
“Bob would’ve loved this,” she told Weinberg. “He would’ve loved you. Keep doing what you’re doing.”
Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts
Protesting in his blood
Friday’s protest, in full Bob Ross regalia, is not the first public act of defiance for Weinberg. In 2008, he made national headlines after being arrested for singing a protest song about fossil fuel while standing atop a gas station. That fall, he rode his bike from Valparaiso to Washington, D.C. to personally punctuate his public message.
He’s considering repeating the journey for this issue, this time with a giant Afro attached to his helmet and wearing a denim shirt. In other words, Bob Ross on wheels. (Watch a video at NWI.com.)
“Art can change the world. Art has changed the world,” Weinberg told me a decade ago.
Since childhood, his artwork has been a conduit of energy for others.
“I remember the first time someone said, ‘Wow, you drew that? That’s amazing!'” he recalled. “I was probably about 8 years old. I just loved the energy I got from that. It’s something that’s defined my life.”
Weinberg speaks in flowery brush strokes of creativity, wonderment and serendipity. His admiration for Ross became a passion project more than a decade ago. He created the Happy Little Hairdos “Bobberverse,” a satirical tribute to Ross that spans from physical art to NFTs to live protests.
What began as a whimsical coffee table parody book has evolved into a national movement combining art, protest, NFTs, and performance to defend the values of PBS and reclaim the cultural legacy of Ross. Weinberg is committed to raise $370,000, 10% of the state funding gap, by donating 100% of profits from Happy Little Hairdos until he reaches that goal.
‘Million Bob March’
Last month, Weinberg appeared in Times Square dressed as Ross, silently holding a Happy Little Protest sign and handing out postcards to invite the public to the “Million Bob March” in October, as Times Square billboards lit up with some of his images of Ross traveling through the multiverse.
“This is more than a costume or protest. It’s a living art piece inspired by the public media that shaped us,” Weinberg said. “There has been a philanthropic arm of my work, from day one, and now all focus has shifted to protecting PBS and preserving imagination in the face of de funding, greed, and cultural erasure.”
Ross died from cancer at 52, though sporting a wig and a smile the whole time. Weinberg is sharing this part of Ross’s story by making appearances as his hero at children’s hospitals to color their outlook with hope.
“This isn’t parody, it’s prophecy. This isn’t cosplay, it’s Rossplay,” Weinberg said, reflecting the catchy wordplay of Ross.
He’s raising money. He’s raising his fist. And he’s raising the banner of public imagination, beginning on Independence Day at Trump Tower. His movement will culminate in the Million Bob March on Oct. 29, Ross’s birthday, in Washington, D.C. He’s inviting people from across the country to show up that day dressed as Ross in a joyful, peaceful stand for public media and creative freedom. (For more info, visit http://www.happylittlehairdos.com.)
“I believe this work has the potential to raise real awareness — and real funding — for PBS and the legacy it upholds,” he said. “We’re showing up to protect the right to dream on public airwaves. We’re showing up to Make America Paint Again.”
Contact Jerry at [email protected]. Find him on Facebook and other socials. Opinions are those of the writer.
Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Jerry Davich
Metro columnist
Author facebook Author twitter Author email Follow Jerry Davich Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Don’t have an account? Sign Up Today
