Eva Antonel
So what's with the colouring books for
adults? To believe the enthusiasts, you'd think
we discovered the fountain of youth, the cure
for cancer and source of all happiness all
rolled into one. Not that there's anything
wrong with colouring books per se. There's
no harm done in shading pretty pastels
between lines depicting nature, landscapes,
cute animals or abstract forms. But why?
Having attained the age of reason, the
large majority of adults are aware of a
multitude of ways to indulge or awaken their
creative child within. So why colouring
books, and why now, when children have
been playing with them for decades?
I don't know about you, but life seems so
much more complicated than it was even a
generation ago. The advent of the home
computer, mobile phone, apps, Facebook,
Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat and
whatever else is out there keeping our fingers
dancing over key boards, has occupied so
much of our disposable time and focus that
very little is left for anything else. Not only do
all those easily-accessed distractions take
away from our creative time, they scatter our
attention with the huge volume of images and
pseudo information, overwhelming us in the
process. Am I the only one who's seen articles
about puppy mills, the repercussions of
legalizing marijuana and the bottoming out
of Canadian currency values as well as
pictures of cats, robots, Italian frescoes and a
multitude of inspirational quotes dancing
across my Facebook feed? And that's just in
the last half hour. Do I know any more about
any of the just-mentioned subjects than I did
this morning? Not really, only that someone
Coloring
outside
the lines is
a fine art.
~Kim
Nance
said something about that and that I should
look further into it before I come across
something else that'll make me forget what it
was that I so wanted to know more about.
In the interest of being totally
transparent, I have to admit that I've checked
Facebook twice and peeked at Instagram
once since beginning this piece, ten minutes
ago. Chances are, I'm not that different from
the majority of people who use a computer to
work and have a phone with a data plan.
This is where colouring books come in.
In the same vein as mindful meditation, they
focus your attention to the simple act of
applying colour between two lines. By putting
pencil to paper and transforming the white
space into a rainbow, we quiet the whirling
mind and pay attention only to what is right
in front of us. But that's where the magic
ends. The same result can be had by taking a
walk, listening to or playing a piece of music,
reading, writing, drawing, knitting or cooking
a meal. The secret lies in eing present in the
moment and engaging the hands and mind
in the process of creating. Contrary to what
your Kindergarten teacher insisted, staying
within the lines is completely unnecessary.
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March 2016 - The HUB 9