Escaping Covid-19 isolation through art, coloring and

a new depiction of Adam and Eve enjoying sex

(2 min read).

Leave it to Playboy to introduce a joyful childhood practice to help healthy sexual adults get through the sexual straight jacket of safe distancing. They’re taking us back to coloring! Yep.

Who doesn’t fondly remember those masterpieces we created with a rainbow of crayons (I liked the sharp, pointy ones best) as our imagination danced across the pages with wild abandon. Or carefully crafted precision, trying to stay inside the lines. We were lost in the moment, watching the images come to life, gleeful, excited … fantasizing. Hey, even back then it might have been sexual because I remember “coloring” after puberty. I can’t remember if Alexander Portnoy in Portnoy’s Complaint tried coloring.

“I want to give people who follow me an escape, even if it’s just for five minutes …” – Benito “Benny Drama” Skinner

This Playboy article, Drawing Dirty! Coloring Outside the Lines with Junglepussy, Brandon Flynn, “Benny Drama” and More is not only an idea about finding a fun escape, it’s designed to “educate and arouse.” It’s been used in high school, sex education and in adulthood can open up exploratory conversations about sexual desires, needs and fantasies. It’s about being free like a kid again, but as an adult sexual being. Fun!

Get your own coloring book

Playboy, in conjunction with Brooke Wise, a L.A.-based curator of fine art, decided to distribute her newly launched The Fine Art Quarantine Coloring Book (“a galaxy of curved and tangled lines created by 25 contemporary artists”) to “a diverse swath of curators, musicians, editors, comedians and photographers, all of whom used their time at home to harness their creativity and draw outside the lines.”

It’s an imaginative mix of fine art, childhood exuberance and sexual freedom.

You can get your own free download copy (crayons not included) and also make a donation to Meals on Wheels at the same time – a 2-for-1 benefit in the midst of the pandemic. And if you really want to explore the kid in you, Playboy is also offering, Pleasure, The Coloring Book (it’s not free), under the promotional banner: “We invite you to bring your own color (and heat) to the simple, sensual images collected here.”

Leave it to art to imitate the reality of isolation and a childhood activity and bring out the most natural forms of expressing our sexual pleasures. BTW, as the article points out, the idea is not new. Way back in 1975 the artist and lesbian activist Tee Corinne published Cunt Coloring Book – “to educate,” among other things.

The true colors of Adam and Eve

Illustration: Robin F. Williams. Coloring: Benito “Benny Drama” Skinner

Of course, art is a personal thing and there’s no explaining why some people like some and others don’t. And that particularly applies to both the artistic depiction of sex and the artistic practice of sex. To each his or her own.

There are numerous parallels between coloring and sex, ranging from careful, colorful imaginative, precise execution to playfully, wild, outside-the-lines abandonment. Take the example in this book of the illustration by Robin F. Williams (left), colored by actor/videographer Benito “Benny Drama” Skinner.

You will want to read Benito’s explanation. Hint: It was an “opportunity to shake the ‘treacherous bitch’ depiction of Eve” and “For the woman, I wanted absolute Lisa Frank vibes, coloring as if I was a kid again.” There is enough fascinating pieces of coloring book art here to cover an entire refrigerator door from actors like Carlson Young and Brandon Flynn to artists like Brian Calvin and Canadian Chloe Wise.

Read the article, enjoy the art, download the coloring book (make a donation to Meals on Wheels) and get after some down and dirty, outside the lines, free sexual expression. After all, it has to beat another half-baked movie from Netflix or HBO. And it’s a helluva lot more artistic, creative and participatory. Plus, it helps cross the social-sexual distancing chastity gap.

Crayola in hand never felt so good.

Read Playboy Article (9 min read) >>

Return to Articles >>