Friday, February 26, 2016

Adult Coloring Books - A Business and An Evangelization Opportunity for Catholic Artists?

My brother sent me a link to this article on the MPR website. This story seems to be getting around - it was on the New Yorker website too! It seems that there is a new trend of adults buying coloring books for themselves. Within a couple of years this has gone from nowhere to sales of millions, yes millions, of books. The top sellers are based upon intricate line drawings of decorative arrangements, with flora and scenes from fantasies that stimulate the imagination.



It strikes me that the possibilities of engagement with non-Catholics and even non Christians are huge here. What about a coloring-in Book of Kells, or any other illuminated manuscript such as the Westminster Psalter? How about the sort of illuminations that one sees on altar cards? If adults find the coloring-in of scenes from Game of Thrones or Harry Potter absorbing and therapeutic, I suggest that the effect would be even better if the imagination was directed towards heavenly realities.



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