By Zach Schonfeld
PHOTO ILLUSTRATIONS BY C.J. BURTON
CRAIG RICHARD COULD NOT STOP WATCHING Bob Ross paint. It was 1983, and Ross’s television show, The Joy of Painting, had recently premiered on PBS. Richard, then in his early teens, would come home from school in Massachusetts, flip on the TV, and settle in as the painter brought clouds, mountains and “happy little trees” to life on a blank canvas.