Coloring & Faith

Kit Whan is very much a business-oriented person. She says she thought she didn’t have one creative bone in her body… until one morning she saw something on the Today show.

It was a segment about adults coloring. With her sister in town for a visit, Kit decided that maybe this would be something they could do together. A couple of coloring books and boxes of colored pencils later, and Kit had a newfound love.

Now, she colors every Sunday night along with her sister in Texas. She also spends time coloring with her mom.

“It’s me time, time away from the world,” she said. “It’s a way for me to relax and be creative.”

Kit is one of the people behind Coloring and faith: An evening of adult coloring and prayer. It will be held on Thursday, Feb. 25, 6:30-8 p.m., Library Commons. All supplies will be provided, as will childcare and snacks.

Participants can come, learn about different methods of using coloring as a time for prayer, exploring faith-related themes, relaxation, and creativity.

Ideas from two different methods/artists will be introduced:

Praying in Color: When multiple friends and family members received ugly and scary diagnoses, Sybil MacBeth found herself exhausted by the words of her prayers and stymied by a lack of focus.

She retreated to her back porch for a session of mindless doodling with a basket of her favorite colored markers. She drew a shape, put the name of a friend inside, and added lines and color. She drew another shape with another name and added detail and color.

When the page was covered with designs and names, Sybil realized she had prayed – the action of drawing was a wordless offering of friends and family into the care of God. To learn more, visit prayingincolor.com.

Zentangle® Method: A concept created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, a Zentangle is an abstract drawing created using repetitive patterns. They are created on 3.5 inch square tiles, done in black ink on white paper.

One day, Maria told Rick what she experienced as she drew background patterns on a manuscript she was creating. She described her feelings of timelessness, freedom and well-being and complete focus on what she was doing with no thought or worry about anything else.

“You’re describing meditation,” Rick said. The two went on to create the Zentangle Method (www.zentangle.com).

The project for Feb. 25 will be the coloring of 2-by-3-foot Lenten posters created by pastor and artist Adam Walker Cleaveland, who is based in the Chicago area. The posters each represent a different theme: welcome, give, serve, listen, love, watch, risk, take & eat, forsaken, go & tell.

“Each of the stories that these posters are based on comes from life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so, these posters take people on a journey of Jesus’ life and teachings,” he said.