One eye on center of canvas?

I like Bob Ross too. I like his somnolent voice, and the way he would close by saying "Be kind to each other."

I've been pondering why the effort of art is so devalued. It would take a while to discuss it here, but I wonder about the reasons. When I was doing commercial art, I'd get loads of flack for the minutest of things, in part because everyone honestly believes that this is something they can do. There is little credibility given to commercial artists. I worked on the web, and would work for marketing directors who would literally say things like "Oh that would be perfect if it were just 3 pixels to the left." On the one hand they're saying I didn't know what I was doing, and on the other hand, they're saying they have some authority. (Later I was a marketing director, and I let my designers do whatever they thought was best.)

So, some kind of art is everywhere. We have graphic design all over the place, and a blurred line bewtween fine and commercial art. We've got everyone from your kindergarten teacher onward telling us what wonderful artists we are, and very few people treating this like a vocation. I heard a woman the other night rattling on about the market for fine art, particularly realistic art, and she wasn't sure it was a wise career choice. This woman is a bartender, not a painter or collector, about the farthest thing from an artist, ever.

So what makes a barmaid think she actually has a handle on the art market? (Besides 12 Skyy and tonics.) A lot of things, of course, but her exposure to the making of art is probably 70% Bob Ross, and she really thinks it ain't that hard. If she got off her butt, she could probably do it too.