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Local color: Park Slope artist hosts adult coloring club

Local color: Park Slope artist hosts adult coloring club
Monica Hammond

She is raising the hue and dye!

Stressed-out grown-ups can release their inner Zen with a childhood activity and an adult beverage at a new monthly meet-up over hipster coloring books, launching at the Koelner Bier Halle on June 1. Coloring books can work wonders for Brooklynites’ psyches, says the event’s organizer.

“I think it’s amazing,” said Monica Hammond. “I’m hoping people are finding it as a way to relax. For me it brings out the inner child.”

The Park Slope artist and comedian started creating her coloring books at the end of 2015, producing several short activity books based on different themes, including dog selfies, pop culture figures from the ’90s, and presidential candidates. She also makes customized, hand-drawn coloring books for people based on photographs they provide, often as quirky wedding or engagement gifts.

The adult coloring books are not just popular with meditating millennials, she said — seniors love to break out the crayons, too.

“There’s a lot of colorists in the retired generation,” said Hammond.

Her only advice for beginning pigment pushers is to stay in between the lines, which is easiest to do with color pencils, she said.

Hammond is constantly surprised at how imaginative people can get with their color selections.

“I love when I see my pictures colored in and the pictures aren’t anything I thought they would be,” she said.

At the event on June 1, colorists of any age can put their own touch on pages featuring Lady Gaga, Hillary Clinton, and Chance the Rapper, among other pop figures. The all-you-can-color event costs $7 for access to Hammond’s original coloring pages and a vast supply of colored pencils, crayons, and markers.

The night will also have a “caption this” contest to come up with the funniest description of one of the coloring pages. The winner will receive bragging rights and a $25 bar tab at Koelner Bier Hall.

Hammond hopes that colorers from all over the borough turn out for the night, which is like a more vibrant, less-stressful version of trivia nights.

“I’m really just looking forward to hanging out with people who like to color. It’s like a trivia night but instead of trivia you’re going to be coloring,” she said.

Coloring Club at Koelner Bier Halle (84 St. Marks Pl. between Fourth and Fifth avenues in Park Slope, www.curiouscustom.com). June 1 at 7:30 pm. $7 ($5 in advance).

Test your coloring skills by printing and filling in this coloring page of Hammond, by Hammond.

Reach reporter Lauren Gill at lgill@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260–2511. Follow her on Twitter @laurenk_gill
Drink and dye: Artist Monica Hammond poses with a beer and one of her hipster coloring pages, at Koelner Bier Halle in Park Slope.
Photo by Jason Speakman