Color The Heart

Hiii!

I started drawing therapeutic and political coloring pages to cope with the traumatic 2016 presidential campaign, and posting the PDFs online for free. As an artist and long-term therapy devotee, I’m obsessed with the adult coloring phenomenon. I particularly love how coloring makes art feel accessible, even for people who might not have considered themselves artists before. It’s inspired a supportive and beautiful community of colorers around the world coloring variations on the same images from popular coloring books. That’s powerful solidarity – I get emotional about it.

I definitely see Color the Heart as a collaboration. I post most of my designs to my website colortheheart.com as free PDFs for anyone to print and color. Old friends and new friends on Instagram and Twitter from all over the globe color and share my pages! I showcase these creations on my second Insta account @wecolorhearts. I enjoy using my designs to amplify social issues and spotlight projects of marginalized activists. I’m really excited to grow this community aspect. I also craft coloring zines and greeting cards, which I'll be selling on Etsy soon!

I use a lot of pink in in my art, from crayon choices to the wallpaper of my website. To me, pink feels positive and calming, but also deceptively strong. As a female-identifying artist, I infuse my work with 'girliness' and enjoy redefining pink my own way. The coloring community in general tends to attract a lot of female artists and I enjoy carving out a space for non-male voices, but I welcome collaborators from all across the gender spectrum.

I like to think that Color The Heart, with all its pink and cuteness, may not look like much of a political force to be reckoned with, but secretly, is an act of political warfare as self-care, as Audre Lorde would say. I'm hoping my art can bring a morale boost to all the warriors out there fighting.