When I was ten years old, or thereabouts, I won a coloring contest sponsored by the local bus company. Since my artistic ability was – and remains – exactly nil, this was very exciting. (I got a clock radio!)
Then as now, coloring contests played to my strengths, rewarding neatness, thoroughness and conscientious rule-following (stay inside those lines!) rather than the anarchic creativity that I so conspicuously lacked. So imagine my delight at discovering that the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, England, is running its own coloring contest (or rather, since this is Britain, its own “colouring competition”) to celebrate Easter.
The contest actually requires a bit more of the anarchic-creativity thing than I would prefer, since contestants are asked to “decorate,” rather than simply color, a version of the famous Jane Austen (or somebody) silhouette. Entry forms can be picked up at the Jane Austen Centre’s gift shop, but luckily for those of us who won’t be in Bath before the April 9 deadline, they can also be downloaded and submitted by email.
No clock radios this time around: the prize is an unspecified collection of “Jane Austen goodies” from the aforementioned gift shop. Which could definitely be worth winning, as long as the package doesn’t include the problematic quote mugs.