Floral Fairies

More fun with coloring books. 

Reconnected

This year has been strange and adapting to all the uncertainty was exhausting. I was lucky to be able to work from home but it had become extremely demanding. I was at my place all the time but between the emails, overtime, following the news, and trying to keep up with the daily chores, I hardly had any real time for myself. 

I wasn’t making as much art either. I love photography but I was mostly limited to things in my immediate environment. I love writing but I didn’t feel like I had the energy to delve inside myself. I wanted to draw more but I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired. So I returned to an old love: coloring.

It was peaceful, fun, and helped me feel like a kid again. Face down at my desk covered in pencil shavings and blasting music. That was how I spent a significant amount of my childhood. 

Some years ago I lost about half of my music from a computer glitch. Slowly I’d add songs back as they would flash in my memory. Over the last few months I rediscovered a lot of songs I hadn’t heard in years. Ones I remember singing along with my friends in high school. In a conversation with my mother I remarked about how they don’t have an oldies station on the radio anymore. That inspired me to find a bunch of songs I loved from the 50’s and 60’s. 

Senses flooded with familiar music and playing with color. It made me feel reconnected. 

Mandala (Part 2)

A second installment on the power of coloring. 

I chose to keep the torn edges in the photographs as a reminder of my child-like glee as I ripped the pages out of the coloring book. 

Mandala

Upon entering DRIP's Local Art Night I was surprised to discover a coloring station with a Mandala coloring book. I've been a huge fan of coloring books well into my adult years and I immediately fell in love. I began to color one right on the spot but I also tore out three more pages to work on at home. 

Although I don't normally prefer to work with markers I felt that their vibrant colors would work well with this project. I picked some up and spent hours just coloring. 

The act of coloring is freeing. I had spent the last few months having to move unexpectedly, recover from kidney stones, and argue with three separate companies over unfair charges and refunds. Every little thing was a fight. I could never just come home and relax. I was in constant motion, always battling. There were no breaks. Everything was painful. I spent so much time begging for help and getting so little that I just couldn't bring myself to ask anymore. 

This was the first time I had sat down to relax in months. 

I spent hours putting color to paper. It was a release. It was the first thing I had laid my hands on in months that I could start and finish in my complete control. It could only turn out well. I could work on something and have a finished product that was beautiful. I was making something for fun, not just trying to survive. No doubt it helped me through a dark time. 

I'm glad I have held on to my love of coloring. It is hard to put into words just what it did for my soul.