Here’s why Twitch is streaming Bob Ross’ The Joy of Painting

If you visited popular video game streaming website Twitch.tv recently, you might've noticed one of the live channels is a marathon of Bob Ross' relaxing paint show, "The Joy of Painting."

I know what you're thinking, because I had the exact same response — why the f*ck is Bob Ross on Twitch? Well, turns out it's actually part of a special celebration — Twitch's official support for the Twitch Creative community.

In a blog post formally announcing Twitch Creative, the company wrote:

It’s been an amazing privilege to watch live video grow up.  From the really early days when what we were doing was only just barely possible, through a time when it worked but nobody could really figure out what to use it for, to the amazing rocket ship that is Twitch.

Twitch really started to work when we noticed a particularly determined community of video gamers who were doing something extraordinary. They were sharing their passion for video games via an entirely new medium: live social video. We decided to do everything we could to support this burgeoning community, and immersed ourselves in the gaming world. Today, there are millions of broadcasters on Twitch, with many of the most dedicated making a comfortable living doing so.

All along, the Twitch community has included a determined community of artists, crafters and builders, who have been using Twitch to broadcast their creative processes. These creative broadcasters share many of the same characteristics as all Twitch broadcasters: passion, engagement, and a community-centric worldview.

As of today, you'll see an entirely new landing page for the Creative category. This includes a dedicated Featured Video carousel meant to highlight interesting creative broadcasts for the community. Additionally, Twitch Creative uses a unique tagging system that's "intended to help broadcasters identify the activity they’re engaged in." Tags like #drawing, #animation, and #watercolor are just a few examples of new tags.

And lastly, Twitch's Rules Of Conduct have been updated to embrace the Creative community. "In short, we encourage you to broadcast your creative process on Twitch, be that visual art, woodworking, costume creation, prop building, music composition, or any other process in which you entertain and connect around a creative activity. We understand that this is vague. We expect to learn much about what is, and is not, appropriate for Twitch as the community grows," Twitch wrote.

Watch live video from BobRoss on www.twitch.tv

So, why is Bob Ross being streamed? Well, because when it comes to embracing creative minds, no one did it better than Ross himself. For those unfamiliar, his show, "The Joy of Painting," was all about offering words of encouragement to those following along at home. Whether it was painting a "happy little tree" or adding an extra cloud here and there, Ross was all about creating a painting that best represented you and your world.

For 30 minutes, Ross would breathe life into a blank canvas, painting breathtaking landscapes and scenery. Although Ross passed away in 1995 at the age of 52, just a year after The Joy of Painting came to an end, you can rewatch all 400 episodes of his Public Broadcasting television program on Twitch (below).