author spotlight
Color me
ILLUSTRATIONS BY: PAMELA SMART
The art of
filling in
the details
62 ;e Costco Connection JULY 2013
By J. Rentilly
LIFE IS ONLY rarely a black-and-white proposition, but in Costco member Pamela Smart’s
Color Me Your Way, full of 26 exquisite, intricately detailed pen-and-ink animal portraits, it
is exactly that: Readers can color Smart’s world,
full of dolphins, elephants, bobcats, squirrels
and seals, in whatever ways they fancy.
“Somebody once asked me, ‘How can
you let people mess with your art?’ ” says the
55-year-old Smart, who’s been drawing ani-
mals since childhood. “The truth is, I love
what people are doing with these pictures,
and for some of them, the coloring is actu-
ally changing their lives for the good. As an
artist, I’d rather be inspiring than intimidat-
ing, anyway. My drawings are an invitation,
and it’s beyond my dreams how many peo-
ple have taken that invitation.”
Indeed, Smart’s coloring books—includ-
ing Color Me 2 and Color Me 3—are not just
for preschoolers, and have been widely
adopted by senior centers, children’s hospi-
tals and veterans centers. “Coloring relieves
stress for people. It can be so therapeutic to
just sit there and color and do what’s in front
of you,” says Smart. “I recently received a call
from a gentleman who’s going through radi-
ation therapy, and he says that coloring is
the only thing that’s getting him through
chemotherapy.”
Smart, inspired by her artist mother and
frequent trips to art museums, began merg-
ing her love of M.C. Escher, Salvador Dalí
and the Renaissance masters as a very young
child, creating ornate drawings she would
duplicate and sell. A trademark of her work
is the meticulous detail, which is not by acci-
dent. “We live in a society where everything
is so instant and everyone’s after instant
gratification. I thought, my favorite old mas-
ters took the time to portray perfect details,
so why can’t I?” she says.
