NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — An East Nashville woman illustrated a coloring book dedicated to the East Nashville neighborhood she lives in, and all of its quirks.
“I just thought, what if we just had a collection in a coloring book of all of the weird sort of bizarre things that have happened in the neighborhood," Rosana Portillo, the illustrator of the book, said.
The book, which is being sold at The Bookshop on Eastland in East Nashville, features brown recluse spiders, a "thundersnow chicken," and numerous other illustrations that went viral through the East Nashville Facebook page over the past few years.
“It’s so telling of our neighborhood and how much we love living here, and how much we just love that it’s not a very cookie cutter place," Portillo explained. “Maybe things don’t always go right, but we sort of like it that way.”
Each page includes a QR code with it that will bring you to the original post that inspired the illustration on the East Nashville Facebook page, and Portillo hopes that when people color in the drawings, and possibly add to it in their own way, that they'll share their work on the page, potentially even on the original post of what the illustration is depicting.
“I’m really hoping that they’ll actually post their own versions of these.”
While Portillo said she's happy with how the book turned out, she said she knows there are so many other options of illustrations that could have gone in this book, both from the past, and new posts that are being made every day.
“I’ve gotten more suggestions or more things have just happened that I’m just putting away in a file in case there ever needs to be a volume 2," Portillo said.
After the release of the coloring book, many gave positive feedback, getting a chuckle out of the pages of memories, and enjoying a book that's completely East Nashville.
“As soon as I saw her first drawing, I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing," Joelle Herr, owner of The Bookshop, said.
The East Nashville Coloring Book is available at The Bookshop, and more information can be found on their website.
