Walter Hofheinz: Photo by James Coreas
If you think coloring books are kid stuff, think again.
Adult coloring books made national headlines after four of them reached the top 10 best-selling books list on
amazon.com earlier this year.
And we don’t even have to go outside the neighborhood to pick up on the trend because neighborhood resident Walter Hofheinz has brought the trend to us.
Hofheinz is an East Dallas attorney, and he’s been making mandalas — geometric circles comprised by lines, dots, swirls and other designs — for at least 20 years.
A friend taught him how to make them, and it quickly became one of his favorite ways to pass the time.
“I draw them when I’m stuck in meetings,” Hofheinz says. “It’s a really socially acceptable thing to do. You can pull out all your pens and do something useful while people are talking.”
For decades he stashed the designs in a drawer. Then recently he decided to put them together to create an adult coloring book.
Shortly after he began selling the book on amazon.com, articles began making the rounds on the social media sites, saying adult coloring books are helping people throughout the United States deal with stress and anxiety.
“It has gotten kind of trendy. It’s the only time in my entire life when I’ve been on top of a trend,” Hofheinz quips. “I think adults like [the coloring books] because they give them an excuse to be creative. People don’t play enough.”
He says drawing mandalas is easy (but we tried making our own and concluded he was just being modest), and Hofheinz is quick to give away his technique.
Instructions are provided in the back of Hofheinz’s coloring book, or you can just let him do the hard work and use the mandalas he provides.
To buy a copy of “Mandalas: A Coloring Book,” search “Walter Hofheinz” on amazon.com.
Walter Hofheinz: Photo by James Coreas
