cheryl
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Staff member
The Dark, Forgotten History of Coloring Books - Slate
A medium celebrated for its stress relief in quarantine has a more sinister side.
In these days of social distancing, I find myself drawn to the comfort of coloring books. I brighten the smile of bunnies having a picnic and blush the lips of two kissers. I animate the empty streets of San Jose and burnish the beams of the Eiffel Tower. Coloring books give life to my hopes for socialization and travel and can make my broken world seem whole, even if it’s just on the page, just for one moment.
I’m not alone. A recent New York Times article celebrated coloring’s ability to reduce anxieties (“repetitive strokes provide temporary relief from life stressors,” I tell myself over and over). Handsome Instagram people told me that it’s OK for grown-ups to color when stuck at home. Free coloring books “are taking over the internet” in this quarantine that comes and goes and seems to never end.
A medium celebrated for its stress relief in quarantine has a more sinister side.
In these days of social distancing, I find myself drawn to the comfort of coloring books. I brighten the smile of bunnies having a picnic and blush the lips of two kissers. I animate the empty streets of San Jose and burnish the beams of the Eiffel Tower. Coloring books give life to my hopes for socialization and travel and can make my broken world seem whole, even if it’s just on the page, just for one moment.
I’m not alone. A recent New York Times article celebrated coloring’s ability to reduce anxieties (“repetitive strokes provide temporary relief from life stressors,” I tell myself over and over). Handsome Instagram people told me that it’s OK for grown-ups to color when stuck at home. Free coloring books “are taking over the internet” in this quarantine that comes and goes and seems to never end.