America's Obsession with Coloring is a Cry for Help
Here's a quote:
"In a very short time, coloring has proven surprisingly addictive for America’s stressed, anxious, and overworked. Therapeutic without being therapy, meditative without being meditation, creative without being creation, artsy without being art, the supposedly soothing activity has also become a big business—in 2015 alone, US sales of coloring books shot up from 1 to 12 million units."
So it got me thinking... Not to say that coloring is bad or detrimental or even a waste of time, but perhaps it is a signal? While we are surrounded with images, perhaps what we, as a society, are missing is hands-on art, up close and personal. Creativity is a craving and most people aren't satisfying it. Besides "relaxation" (everyone has stress and it's been that way through all of history), perhaps the coloring trend is showing a deep need people have to create. Since art instruction and practice is not emphasized (as compared to math and reading and science) in our developing years, we have found coloring as an approachable form of creativity. If one can't make the beautiful drawings, at least one can feast one's eyes on them while filling them with color in an attempt to satisfy the need for making something beautiful. Anyone can do it.
Comments, thoughts, ideas? Let's discuss!
I think this is well observed and well put. I also think that the coloring fad is a fad, partly running on "neighbor see, neighbor do," but that it is very much serving a real need, as you said. This also is why I keep trying to push and pull and bribe and encourage and even compel people around me to DO ART. It is good for the body, mind, and spirit - and maybe the soul too. We need to take time, and make time, and create time, to do good and beautiful things.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think that too much of our lives are mechanized and digitized, so that we do not do what people in former ages had to do by necessity, that is, to make things from raw materials, from which they could derive a product and take satisfaction in having made it. We are, after all, created in God's image with His compelling urge to create things (not from nothing, as He did, but from other things). When we neglect to have Making as part of our lives, we are missing a vital component of life and it makes us antsy, increasing stress. As with all of life, the MAKER made the creation to function properly in a certain way for optimal quality, both of existence and of interaction. It can run less optimally, but it will wear out faster and make odd noises while it does what it does, less than ideally. We really, really need to follow the MAKER'S Manual on operating instructions. He said tend the garden and help the man. That isn't at all like "push buttons to get out of having to do hand's-on construction while getting your hands dirty."
This matter of doing and making and being creative is not an option for when we have extra time - which we never do - but it is an imperative for life. REGULARLY.
Thanks for the observation, Katie.
Anybody else with a comment?
oops, again. Omit the apostrophe on hands.
ReplyDeleteEverybody, do remember Mother' Day contest: something to honor Mother, with something flowery. Send a picture of your entries by the end of Monday, your time.
ReplyDelete