Color My World

Adult Coloring.....a new trend I am quite fond of.  Each visit to Barnes and Noble brings more and more books on the subject.  On one visit before Christmas I snatched this one up from the magazine.  Happinessz.  I ripped the pages up and taped it to my stockroom wall at work.  I quickly wrote some things I am grateful to my co-workers for after Thanksgiving.  One has been colored in totally since the two months it has been up.  This was a very busy Christmas and inventory came very quickly and so did my vacation.   I am looking forward to the next couple of months so we can fill in some colors on these, and I will share a picture when we are done.
     When I went back to college and majored in Art, I was in my late 20's.  I know it was just what I needed.  I was having a conversation with my Sculpture professor and he was really digging into what brought me to college and why I was majoring in Art.  It became clear I wanted to create something.  I was trying to get pregnant and going through a lot of treatments.  I was working two part-time jobs, married and still cooking dinner, and taking 19 credits for two semesters to graduate that May.  I loved it!  But, the blank canvas thing really got to me.  I took Art Philosophy, drawing, painting, sculpture and loved them all.  But, most of all was taught how to get into the zone.  Using the right side of the brain to be creative.  The best was to explain the zone is to think when you are driving your car and you get from A to B.  Did you get in the car and really think.....or did you turn on the radio and sing and before you knew it you were at your destination.  There are probably many other times you get into the zone, but that is the best example I can think of right now.  So, now when you go to paint, draw, write music, take photos etc. it is hard to say I am going to get in the zone and do this.  If you can't and you have a deadline it can make or break you.  This is what makes something that can give you so much joy difficult.  But, if you do it for fun.....well then, now we are talking.  So, that is what coloring is all about.  It is fun and can bring you back to times when you were young and carefree.  Color alone can make you happy....what colors to use.....lots of blue representing a beautiful blue sky, or lots of yellow making your own sunshine.  It is good and positive and I hope more and more people do this to help with the stress we all endure.  I was planning on doing a blog post about this since I made the wall in my stockroom, but after a conversation with a co-worker I didn't realize how funny this subject was.  She said one of her co-workers (in her early twenties) exclaimed she was doing adult coloring to relieve stress.  And, her response put me in a long belly laugh.  It was: what is in those coloring books that makes them adult......meaning pornography?   I never thought of that, but it was funny.  Then I come home and open facebook and there are curseword coloring books all written in cursive with floral designs.....now, that is stress reliever!  I am just happy there is an escape from reality, besides the tabloids and a thousand other advertisement driven thing on tv or magazines.  It is also been fun seeing facebook friends have been coloring.  So, I hope this is not a quick fad, but something we can all do anytime to live a more stressfree lifestyle.