In 1974, the City of Kingston commissioned a coloring book about our colonial heritage. Over 40 years later, a group of local artists from Kingston Creative have come up with one of their own.
“I rounded up the artists,” says Gabrielle Green, co-founder of Kingston Creative. “They’re all friends of mine, I laid out the book, I guess you could call me the producer.”
Green, along with pastry chef and Internet celeb Amber Spiegel, comic illustrator Brittney Scott, tattoo artist Emily Scott, and Ink Inc. tattoo shop manager Ryan Darnley have contributed to a total of 19 original illustrations of cats and dogs that are begging for color.
“Most tattoos have to start as line drawings, so it’s kind of cool that [these] simple designs can be transferred to this new medium,” said Darnley. (While coloring books for kids have been a thing since forever, it’s only recently that adults, many seeking some kind of relaxing activity, have taken coloring up as a hobby.) “Tattooing and coloring books are both therapeutic in different ways.”
“I make my living baking and decorating cookies, but I’ve always considered myself an artist first. Long before I started my career as a pastry artist, I spent lots of time drawing and painting as a hobby,” said Spiegel. “Contributing to the Cats and Dogs coloring book was an easy transition back to my artistic origins.”
Including shipping costs, the book costs $15, 10 percent of which will be donated to the Heart of the Catskills Humane Society, centered in Delaware County, but which serves surrounding counties. For more information or to pre-order, visit https://kingstoncreative.net/coloring-book.
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