{"id":7272,"date":"2016-02-05T00:10:42","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T04:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arts.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=7272"},"modified":"2016-06-08T22:04:51","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T02:04:51","slug":"why-do-you-color","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2016\/02\/05\/why-do-you-color\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do You Color?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yeah I did it. I caved. I got an adult coloring book.<\/span><\/p>\n

I mean, it\u2019s not like I didn\u2019t want one. My roommate has 6 and counting, and loves to take it out whenever possible. It\u2019s her go-to stress reliever\u2026.and I\u2019m often jealous.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then I\u2019d remind myself that it costs money, that I\u2019d have to buy colored pencils, that I won\u2019t have time and it\u2019ll be a waste of money. And then last weekend, those excuses disappeared as I stood in front of the table at Literati. <\/span><\/p>\n

Then, all I could think was <\/span>which one should I get<\/span><\/i>? So I did it. I caved. I had some gift money left over from a return purchase, and I had an Amazon gift card. So I did it. I got an adult coloring book.<\/span><\/p>\n

The whole idea of adult coloring books intrigues me a lot though. When I was little, I wasn\u2019t a huge fan of coloring. I liked doing crafts more, something where I could be a little freer. And I think, truthfully, I didn\u2019t have the patience for coloring. Even though you can\u2019t really be bad at coloring (and anyone who says otherwise is lying), I wasn\u2019t ever any good at <\/span>art<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t talk much about art, as in painting, drawing, sketching, molding – anything in that realm, because I\u2019m not good at it. It\u2019s hard to enjoy something when you\u2019re so frustrated with yourself. I\u2019m a dreamer. I imagine things. And when the imagination doesn\u2019t match up with reality, I\u2019m upset. Why am I not good enough?<\/span><\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t stop me from roaming around museums and letting my mind wander. Trust me, I do love art. I had to pry myself away from the Louvre this summer, and I had really only seen barely half of it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even so, this side of me, the artistic one, doesn\u2019t really come out very often. I do love art, and I certainly respect and appreciate it, but I don\u2019t do it, so I don\u2019t talk about it very much.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then these coloring books. Studies show that coloring is a good stress reliever. You put any adult in a classroom full of kids, and put in one coloring station and you\u2019ll see the results of that. When working in childcare I honestly loved to color with the kids. In large classrooms, it can be hard to interact with children playing blocks, making their own towers, or zooming around with a little firetruck clutched in their fists. They\u2019re often in their own world, or in the worlds of their peers, and as an adult it can be challenging to enter that world, even as their teacher. But coloring is a way to connect. You can ask the kids what their favorite color is, how their week at school was, what they like to do for fun at home. All the while, you\u2019re sitting (or squatting, if you aren\u2019t four years old) at a desk, with a pretty picture to take home.<\/span><\/p>\n

I find adult coloring books interesting because of these two things: the connection with art, and the connection with childhood. Maybe it\u2019s a bit strange to have an adult color, or maybe it\u2019s the most obvious thing in the world. Maybe it\u2019s good to have an artistic outlet, or maybe it\u2019s nice just to relax.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever the reason you color (if you do), keep coloring. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yeah I did it. I caved. I got an adult coloring book. I mean, it\u2019s not like I didn\u2019t want one. My roommate has 6 and counting, and loves to take it out whenever possible. It\u2019s her go-to stress reliever\u2026.and I\u2019m often jealous. But then I\u2019d remind myself that it costs money, that I\u2019d have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[826,9,825],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7272"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7272"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7617,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7272\/revisions\/7617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}