Messy Is the Watchword
All Durell Godfrey ever wanted in a career was an “art job,” one that would place her among the creative people she considered members of her “tribe.” That’s what she hoped for when she graduated in 1964 from Endicott College in Massachusetts, and that’s how it turned out.
After a brief attempt to live and work in Boston, where she was told that art studios didn’t like to hire women, Ms. Godfrey won a coveted job in New York City as an illustrator for Glamour magazine, a job she enjoyed for 31 years.
Now a longtime contributing photographer for The Star, Ms. Godfrey said charm is the word she likes most to describe her style. Over the years her illustrations have been seen in Glamour magazine’s travel guides, fitness columns, and “Sticky Situation of the Month.” She incorporated the fashions and hairstyles of the time and would sometimes put herself, her friends, or even her cat into a scene.
Fast forward to March 2015, when a friend and East Hampton Ladies Village Improvement Society colleague showed her an article from The New York Times about a Scottish woman who had created a groundbreaking coloring book for grown-ups. “I can do that,” she thought, and she has. Calling on one of her contacts in the publishing world, she seized the opportunity. Two weeks later, she had signed the deal.
“Color Me Cluttered,” due out on Dec. 8 from Penguin Random House, features everyday scenes from much-loved, thoroughly lived-in houses. Awaiting its audience of adults are 40 line drawings, and Ms. Godfrey recommends colored pencils or markers as the medium.
Among its pages is a clothes dryer bursting open with socks, linens, and other washables. Jewelry spills over the sides of the drawers of a dressing table. A work desk is piled with papers and pens, and notes are taped to the windows and walls. In a kitchen, plates, cups, and food have been left all over the place. Simply put, Ms. Godfrey wants people to relate to, and enjoy, her work.
“Flipping through it, they will be engaged,” Ms. Godfrey said. “They will be involved with who lives in this room. They have been in a room like that or know the person who lives there. Maybe they want to tidy up that room.”
“Color Me Cluttered” is full of domestic charm, although it won’t be the kind of aesthetic you would find in a house that’s been staged here for sale.
“I think things that are tidy are not fun to look at,” Ms. Godfrey said. “Messy is much more interesting to draw.”
“Color Me Cluttered” is among a growing number of books meant not for tots but for their parents. Among more than 7,000 Amazon.com listings are meditative mandala books, flowers and butterflies, landscapes and seascapes, holidays, and at least one with pictures that stoners might find appealing.
Some of the adults buying these books are frazzled folks who are heeding the advice of psychologists who recommend coloring as therapeutic. Dr. Ben Michaelis, the New York City-based author of “Your Next Big Thing: Ten Small Steps to Get Moving and Get Happy,” recently told The Huffington Post that “a specific and repetitive activity” such as coloring “increases your focus and activates portions of your parietal lobe, which are connected to your sense of self and spirituality.”
Ms. Godfrey worked on her book for about five weeks in the spring this year, producing 75 drawings. The publishers had asked for 60, but she just kept going.
Almost immediately after they were submitted, Ms. Godfrey’s husband, John Berg, fell ill, and she began focusing on his care. Mr. Berg died in October. Ms. Godfrey said the support of her artistic tribe of friends and colleagues, along with the coming release of “Color Me Cluttered,” has helped her move on.
“This gave me something to look forward to. I’m sorry I can’t share it with him, but he looked at all of the drawings I did as I was doing them,” she said. “It helped me focus on the future instead of dwelling on my loss.”
The coloring book has also represented a career rebirth of sorts for Ms. Godfrey. She said the book was able to get her “back into the groove” she had when illustrating for Glamour.
During an interview in her studio, as she fiddled with a light box she has had since the 1970s, which still works perfectly, she said, “I’m 70 years old. I didn’t expect to have sort of a new career path. It’s totally gratifying . . . and I’m really, really lucky.”