My Coloring Book

By Jane Farrell

Remember coloring for grown-ups? That seems so five minutes ago, or more probably like ten or fifteen. My local Barnes & Noble, whose entryway used to be lined with every color-your-way-to-serenity volume you could imagine, now has the survivors stuffed into a sad little corner called “Activity Books.” They don’t even divide the grown-up books from the kids’ ones.

But I don’t let that stop me; I was coloring before it was cool, and I’m continuing even after it’s stopped being cool. This year I had kind of a rough summer, for reasons I don’t want to talk about. But let’s just say that coloring birds with silken purple wings and lime-green heads (in coloring you can use any hue you want) brings me a joy that’s otherwise been hard to find.

My favorite right now is Enchanted Coloring Book: Magical Images to Make Your Own, by Nina Tara. It’s filled with birds, fairies, wizards, witches,, butterflies, dragonflies, dragons, unicorns and a Russian village. It has that medieval-hippie feel, in other words. The pages are blank on one side so you can use your best color markers without bleeding. That’s important if you use good color markers, though pencils are good, too. I’ve worked my way through every page until the book looks as worn as a paperback that’s been passed around among several friends.

In fact, I love Enchanted Tales so much that I thought about ordering a new one just so I could do it all over again. Then I realized that was probably a bad idea; I should just move on and try something new – in this case, a coloring book called Happiness. Trying something new is nearly always a good thing.

I hope the artists find as much delight in drawing their images as I find in filling them in. There are few activities more satisfying (at least these days) than filling in a wing or a feather or a roof tile with a light or bright color. There’s not one spot of color that goes outside the lines, and to me, at least, that seems like an accomplishment.