Adult coloring-book trend provides an outline for creativity at any age

SYRACUSE — Intricate mandalas, ocean views, delicate flowers, and other complex patterns are not what a three-year-old would typically be interested in coloring. Older adults on the other hand, especially women entering retirement age, can’t seem to put their coloring pencils down. 

Adults are flocking to the coloring books — among other artistic activities like painting, pottery and writing — to relax, reduce stress, and tap their creative side.

Books End — a Syracuse bookstore featuring used, rare, and out-of-print books — has carried coloring books, both for kids and grown-ups, since the late 1990s and early 2000s. But in the last year, the store, located at 2443 James St., has seen a marked spike in sales of the Dover Publications’ “Creative Haven” books that it carries, Jim Roberts, store owner, says.

“We certainly have seen a huge interest here — people come in and they buy three at a time,” says Roberts. “It’s hugely popular. Some people say, ‘Oh, I sat and just colored for an hour’ and it’s amazing to me.”

Several adult coloring books have made The New York Timesbestseller list, namely Johanna Basford’s “Secret Garden,” which has sold millions of copies worldwide, and “Color Me Calm,” authored by art therapist Lacy Mucklow and illustrated by Angela Porter. They can be found in stores like Barnes & Noble, Michael’s, Wegmans, and on Amazon — at prices ranging from $5 to $15.

A Dec. 13, 2015, New York Post article — featuring the headline: “Hottest trend in publishing is adult coloring books” — noted that nine of the 20 books on Amazon’s current bestseller list were adult coloring books. 

Predominately aimed at women ages 35 and up, books offering nature scenes and geometric patterns with intense detail are the big sellers, Roberts says. 

In trying to explain the surge in interest in grown-up coloring books, Roberts relates a story about one customer who compared her experience to using a cookbook. If she wants to cook (or color), there is no pressure to create a recipe herself — all she has to do is follow what’s been outlined for her and make it her own.

“While I find them somewhat mysterious, I don’t want to mock them,” Roberts says of the adult coloring books. “If they make people happy — what’s the harm?” 

An author’s story
Mucklow, a licensed art therapist residing near the nation’s capital and author of the “Color Me” series, says coloring in mandalas has been proven to have a calming effect. Mandalas are circular icons, delineating from Buddhist and Hindu motifs, and feature intricate lines and patterns that radiate out from the circle’s center.

For the “Color Me Stress-Free” book, “we focused more on geometric and mandala images — those are more abstract in general, and a lot of times, those types of images tend to be calming for people anyway,” Mucklow says. “There’s been a little research showing that coloring mandalas reduces anxiety and stress.”

Published on Feb. 15, the fourth book in the series is called “Color Me Fearless” and sells for about $10 to $12 on Amazon. About 2 percent of each sale goes to Mucklow as a royalty. Her contract with Race Point Publishing limited her compensation to a flat rate for the first two books, but then was switched to a royalty-based contract for the next three “Color Me” titles, she says.

Full time, Mucklow works for an undisclosed federal government agency in Washington, D.C., helping families through traumatic experiences via art therapy. She says the profits she makes from the coloring books are comparable to her pay as a full-time therapist. 

“I can’t complain. I’m pleased with the sales, I’m pleased with the personal stories,” Mucklow says. “Who knew where this would go and what it would do for people?”

Area activities
Several Central New York area libraries host public coloring events for adults. The Liverpool Public Library is hosting an “hour of stress-relieving and creative coloring” on March 19 at 3 p.m., and the Baldwinsville Public Library has its monthly “Bville Coloring Club” meeting on March 17 at 6:30 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public, and coloring pencils and pages will be provided.

Following the national trend of expressive activities, the Cicero branch of the Northern Onondaga Public Library system just launched its “Creative Aging” program in early February. The Cicero library is hosting three different eight-week classes in painting, photography, and writing for anyone 50 and older. 

Jill Youngs, Cicero branch manager, says a $3,250 state grant made the Creative Aging programs possible. New York State Senator John DeFrancisco (R–Syracuse) helped secure the funding. The grant covered the cost of materials, hiring professionals to teach the classes, and the cost of a reception to be held in mid-April.

Youngs says the library has capped classes at 15 participants each for the time being. There is no cost to enroll, and the library has plans in the works for another painter and a poet to teach additional classes.

“It’s been proven that sometimes seniors isolate, and this is a great chance for them to renew their interests that they might have once had,” Youngs says. 

Other area community centers also offer activities specifically for older adults. 

Mary Beth Anderson, Active Older Adults (AOA) program director at the East Area Family YMCA in Fayetteville, says keeping older people both mentally and physically engaged is crucial to their happiness. “Active older adult” has become the YMCA’s term of choice to describe the 50-and-over age group of adults who aren’t quite ready to slow down. The Y offers a variety of creative programming for them.

The East Area Y charges a $5 fee for AOA classes in ceramics, watercolor painting, and tie dyeing, and restricts participant age to those who are 62 or over. Seniors interested in playing pickle ball, joining a book club, going for walks, and playing bridge or Scrabble will find themselves at home through Anderson’s AOA programming and club activities. 

“If they’re doing something creative, a lot of times it’s giving them a sense of accomplishment,” Anderson says. “Half of them don’t even realize they have the skills that they do, and as you’re aging, you have to keep exercising your mind.”

Business benefit
One area business recently found a way to use the adult coloring-book trend to connect with its customers.

Grace Chiang, co-founder and president of Ithaca–based Chiang O’Brien Architects, incorporated a stylized coloring-book design into her firm’s yearly holiday greeting. She sent out five illustrated postcards, which she hand-drew herself, of images central to the Lunar New Year to clients and friends, and made sure to include a set of coloring pencils as well.

Chiang says she has received positive feedback from clients on the coloring cards. She notes one client confessed to showing “everyone” the coloring cards, but kept them to herself to color.

“It was really fun to draw [the postcards], and it was such a nice change from what I usually draw,” Chiang says. “The most fun is the reactions from people — knowing it did something for them.”