Swish, swish. Scratch.
In the silent moments between songs — all with the names of colors in the title — laughter, quiet chatter and the repetitive swishing and scratching of color pencils moving across paper is heard as a group of adults sit together to color.
Time is set aside on the third Friday of every month at Woods Memorial Library, 3455 N. First Ave., for “Adult Coloring Group,” allowing grown-ups a much needed time-out from daily life, as well as socialization with other adults.
Participants need only bring themselves. The library provides coloring sheets, crayons, coloring pencils and music, for the free activity, says Kelly Urman, adult services librarian at Woods Memorial Library.
Urman says she started the group in January after reading an article about the popularity of adult coloring.
And, it’s an inexpensive way to get more people to the library, she adds.
The group is slowly growing, Urman says. Anywhere from two to 10 people attend every month.
“We get to sit and color and chat and be creative,” Urman says.
Urman’s mother, Kay Boyd, sits at the end of a table with a huge coloring set her husband bought her.
Boyd says the coloring trend has reached her retirement community, as well. Each daily newsletter comes with a coloring sheet on the back, and members of the community get together to color them.
“It’s relaxing and creative,” Boyd says. “It’s nice to have company and you get to take home a very pretty finished product.”
Helen Jones, who recently graduated from the University of Arizona, colors while telling the group about the relaxation benefits the hobby has on one of her friends.
“My friend said she likes to color and when she does, her Fitbit shows her heart rate is lower,” Jones says.
Justus Ferrell — a tattoo artist by trade and father to four children — works on bright pink and red flowers with his free arm and hand, his other cradling his 5-month-old sleeping baby.
“It’s my first time here,” he says. “I was trying to put the baby to sleep while my wife uses a computer in the library, so thought I’d give it a try. I’m having a great time. ... This is just fun.”
Another participant, Anne Kessell, attends the library group regularly, as well as a group she found on Meetup.com. It helps her relax.
“The colors themselves are therapeutic and it’s artistic expression,” Kessell says. “And it’s mindless. I can get out of my head.”
Kessell has been coloring with other adults for about six months.
“It’s impossible not to chill out and lose track of time,” Kessell says.
“Yellow Submarine,” a few people say in unison, when the famous Beatles song comes on. That gets them each a couple of yellow Starburst candies. Urman plays a game with participants — first one to say the title of the song gets a candy that corresponds with the color in the title.
“This is the only group I’ve been to that has music,” Kissell says.
Mostly Books
The popularity of adult coloring books has increased so much that the number of coloring books offered at Mostly Books, 6208 E. Speedway, has tripled since last summer, says Bobbe Arnett, the store’s owner. It now has three racks on a myriad of topics — Steampunk, The Walking Dead and Harry Potter, to name a few.
The store has been selling adult coloring books for about five years, but never quite like this.
In August of last year, the shop started its Adult Coloring Hour, which takes place at 7 p.m. on the third Wednesday of the month and from 1 to 4 p.m. on the fourth Saturday each month. Colored pencils and crayons are provided. Participants can bring a book to color or purchase one from the store.
“We just sit down and color and relax and chat,” says Jody Hardy, store manager. “It’s a really big stress reliever, but it’s also a good social activity. Everybody gets to know each other.”
The size of the group varies, but Hardy says the Saturday sessions are usually larger. One Saturday, two months ago, she says 20 people showed up to the free event.
“I’ve never stopped coloring,” Hardy says. “It was kind of discouraging before they had the adult ones, though.”
Arnett and Hardy sit at a table and start coloring while they wait for participants to arrive on a recent Wednesday evening.
They joke with each other about Hardy’s insistence in not mixing the two brands of colored pencils spread out on the table.
Logan McMillan, a 23-year-old UA student walks in after his mother. It’s his first time here.
“It’s a new adventure,” McMillan says. “My mom said ‘there’s a coloring event, you want to come? You don’t have to color. You can read.’ But, she convinced me.”
McMillan chooses a page to color and gets to work. The group is small, but chats, laughs and checks out each other’s work.
Conversations jump from coloring techniques to snowbirds to the university.
“It starts out looking like nothing and you look down and suddenly it looks like something,” Arnett says of the design she is working on. “I had a lady say she colors during scary parts of movies. I though ‘oh my goodness, that’s just funny.”
“My husband’s the artist, not me,” Hardy says. “I just like to be relaxed and I find if I’m watching TV, it’s something better to fidget with than my phone.”
Arnett looks over at McMillan’s page, filled with bright blue, red, yellow, green and orange.
“I like the mix of colors,” Arnett says.
“Thank you,” McMillan replies. “Oh, you were talking to me, right?”
Everyone in the room laughs.
Hardy works on coloring a page full of tea pots and cups from the “Alice in Wonderland” coloring book she picked up in the store.
“It tells the story as it goes along, which is fun,” Hardy says.
“A coloring storybook,” McMillan says. “Two for the price of one.”
Bookmans
The “Adult Color Club” meets from 6 to 8 p.m. on the second Friday of each month. The free group has been meeting for about three months now, says Danielle Byers, the events liaison for Bookmans Speedway, 6230 E. Speedway.
Attendance varies anywhere from two to 10 or more.
It was started as a response to customer interest, Byers says. “Bookmans was receiving regular requests for adult coloring books, so we wanted to fill that interest. As employees of Bookmans, many of us are artists and were coloring ourselves. We also had customers meeting in our cafe in groups to color together so we figured why not make it official.”
Attendees can use coloring sheets and markers or coloring pencils, provided by Bookmans or they can bring their own books or purchase one at the store.
Coloring provides “tremendous neurological benefits,” Byers says.
“The brain is a muscle like any other in the body and requires exercise to maintain health. Coloring is a double win because not only does it hone neurological synapses that can in time become weak, but it also reduces stress,” Byers says.
Coloring can help relieve stress, which can lead to physical and emotional problems, Byers said. She points out that the activity is low in cost and doesn’t require a set skill. And coloring in a group is a low-key social activity. “This is especially important for busy working adults with little time for socializing and for seniors who can spend unhealthy amounts of time alone,” says Byers.
