You must color inside the lines. This is what we were taught. So, we did. 

In fact, I was taught that you should, once you pick a color for a particular area, press your crayon hard and trace over the line as the extra wax would help you not accidentally go outside of it. So, that’s what I did and I rarely breached that border. 

Learning things like that and how to use the crayons with different pressure and strokes to make darker and lighter shading is what craft is all about. Craft is about the skills and techniques needed to do the work.

Some would say that coloring inside the lines is just craft. They would leave it there. They would say it and it’s cousin paint-by-number are not art because of the lines. 

But this is faulty thinking. Coloring and paint-by-number are very different. 

Paint-by-number is all craft. Every bit of it is controlled. Once you master the skill of using the brushes and develop the patience for the detail work, you have it. Several paint-by-number craftspeople can make virtually identical paintings while being across the globe. It’s factory work.

But coloring, while requiring craft, adds an artistic element … choice. You see, the art in coloring is in the choices made in color, shading, angle of the strokes, etc. You can make purple cows and green sheep. You can make everything gray and black if you want. You can merge and overlap colors. You can polka dot or stripe an area. You can do a million odd, wacky, visionary things and stay inside the lines. And all that zaniness says something. All that zaniness makes a connection to a viewer. And that is the art. 

For all of us, our work, whatever it is, has lines. There are boundaries set up by laws, regulations, company policies, limitations of tools, or even cultural mores. Even traditional artists have lines. The canvas has an edge. Stone can crack. Sound can distort. Words can be misspelled. 

Yet, even with all the boundaries set before us, human beings, with their yearning for uniqueness, expression, and excitement, have worked within all manner of constraints to connect and inspire for generations.

A visit to an art museum or a concert can change us. A controversial painting gets us talking, debating, and even protesting. Art moves people. And that is something we can all do.

Much like coloring, it may seem that the lines in our life and work present limits, but again, like coloring, we have choices. What colors, shading, and patterns are available to you? What would make what you do better in a way that puts your stamp on it? How can you put you, with all of your vision and zaniness, out there, yet stay inside the lines?

It’s not about being in your face (subtlety is a skill), it’s about being you and doing things in a way only you can do them. It’s about being called into a project because, while many can write the report, no one can write it the way you do. Your art is you … and you can stay in the lines. 

The choices are the key, and they’re yours to make.

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