b'Matters heart of thematterThingsthat Matter Since 1990 Our Happy AccidentFeaturing Local People, Places and PUBLISHER& EDITOR IN CHIEF We tried something new.Ellen DonkerBY ELLEN DONKERINTERIMASSOCIATEEDITORMadeline DepueSOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER Rob, Madeline and I Rachael Entine show off our landscape paintings after our online ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS tutorial.Rene ConlonH. Leslie GilmanAmy PowerCOPY EDITORSNick HumezTia SwansonCONTRIBUTORSSara Courtney E veryone has a perception of their talents,terfall, bushes, cabin. And just when you thought you were Donny LevitOlivia Mack McCoolTamara StecklerJulia Maloof Verderosa separating the things theyre good at fromdone, Bob would add another large tree in the foreground. the ones theyre not. Case in point: art.Rob protested each addition, but Bob kept him in the game, Were led to believe that only certain peo- calling our missteps happy accidents. We had just painted ple get the gene. Thats why I didnt expectin some bushes when Bob suggested adding a cabin. That my husband, Rob, to go along with mywas itRob was done, and he spent the rest of the time daughter, Madelines, suggestion.touching up his trees. What started out looking like pickles It was a cold and overcast Saturday afternoon and sheeventually took shape with more practiced brushstrokes. wanted us to watch a Bob Ross video and paint the sceneMadeline and I soldiered on. Shes got the better eye and along with him. If youre not familiar with Bob Ross, he hadproduced a tidy little cabin in no time flat. Mine took lon-a show, The Joy of Painting, which ran on PBS from 1983gerI had the roofline all wrong. To compensate, I made Please address all correspondence to: to 1994 and developed a cult following. In less than a halfthe cabin bigger. By the time I was satisfied, it had grown Visual Impact Advertising, Inc. hour, Bob, with his permed afro and mellow voice, taughtto a duplex. It was time to stop. We were tired and none of P.O. Box 198 viewers how to paint a landscape. Sadly, he died at 52.us had room for Bobs final tree. Maplewood, NJ 07040 Although Rob mentioned enjoying paint by numbersBut then, some magic happened. As we were putting the 973-763-4900 when he was in middle school, he had no confidence in hispaints away, discarding the newspaper and paper plates and mattersmagazine.comartistic skills. I fully expected him to make an excuse thatcleaning our brushes, we dared to glance at our landscape info@mattersmagazine.com he had to caulk the bathroom sink or pick up his shirts atpaintings.Wedidntwince.Robsfinaltreelookedlike Matters Magazine is owned and publishedthe dry cleaners. Surprisingly, he agreed to paint.an evergreen; he even had reflected the mountains nicely. by Visual Impact Advertising, Inc., P.O.As a crafter, Madeline has many art supplies. It onlyMadelines scene was neat and well-proportioned; and my Box 198, Maplewood, NJ 07040. Matterstook a jog down to the basement for her to produce littlecabin was more defined than I had thought. Magazine is free, with editions direct mailed 7 times a year to the residents of Maplewoodcanvases and acrylic paints in an array of colors. We cov- We propped the canvases on the kitchen windowsill. and South Orange and distributed to busi- ered our kitchen table with newspaper, squeezed out dime- The next morning over breakfast, we stopped for a minute, nesses and surrounding communities total-ing 16,000. Subscriptions are available tosize squirts of paint on paper plates, lined up our brushestaking in our creations. Rob said, Mine doesnt look hor-non-residents for $30 (U.S.), $40 (Foreign)and hit play on the laptop.rible, and proceeded to comment on the places where he annually. No part of the publication may beI think we were 30 seconds into the video when Robhad unexpectedly captured an element well. Madeline and reprinted or otherwise reproduced without writtenpermissionfromVisualImpactdeclared, I cant do this. We were laying down color for aI had similar reactions.Advertising, Inc. vibrant sky and none of us had any idea how it could everIt felt like our worlds had expanded just a bit and given CIRCULATION VERIFIED BY look like Bobs, with its beautifully blended blues, pinks,us a new way to view ourselvesas people who can paint U.S. POSTAL RECEIPTS. and yellows. Although we gave Rob a few pep talks, welandscapes. Kind of. READ & RECYCLE eventually left him to his mumblings of self-deprecation. Rob says hes ready for another tutorial. And this time The tutorial went like this: sky, mountains, trees, wa- he has some confidence. 10/ matters magazine / winter 2022'