The WEEN Coloring Book II By Thea Wolfe, Currently In The Works
Made as a “love letter” to the band that inspired it, a sequel to the widely popular book is now being produced by the artist behind it, a full 10 years later
I first met Thea Wolfe more than 9 years ago.
I’ve told this story before, but, back in 2009, the band WEEN was still working with their old management, which meant that they were a lot easier for me to form connections with, as far as setting things up for the site ranging from show coverage to hosting ticket giveaways. A friend that I had at the time was working at Cornish College Of The Arts here in Seattle and hit me up on Google messenger to let me know that there were a number of paintings related to the New Hope, PA band hanging up on campus. I can’t remember my exact words, but I’m sure that I told him that what he was explaining to me sounded like it was going to be pretty fucking terrible. I’m not generally big on this sort of amateur fan art, at least as far as it pertains to rock bands. More than simply unoriginal, fan art is almost guaranteed to be derivative by nature. Ween is a group with it’s own incredibly unique sound, aesthetic, lore, and symbolism, which has yielded a particularly obsessive fan base. What I’m getting at is that, while I love what they do, I’m not interested in seeing anyone else try to piggyback off of it, let alone what I half expected to be the glorified binder doodles of a local art school student.
With little optimism, I told my friend to go ahead and shoot me some images anyway, but what I witnessed set my ass straight pretty quickly. I felt as if there was a very small chance that whatever I received wasn’t going to look like complete and total garbage to me, and an even slimmer likelihood that I was actually going to be impressed by it, but I definitely was. I automatically shifted from the mentality of a dismissive cynic into that of a shady talent agent. I had somewhat of an “in” through the band’s management, at the time, and figured that, if they saw the work, they’d be as impressed by it as I was. We didn’t know each other, but I wanted the group to be aware of this art, which was somehow both undeniably reverent and beautifully original, at the same time. I asked for the name and contact of the artist who created it on the premise that I might be able to connect them together. I was told that these were paintings by “Thea Wolfe,” a name that I knew I recognized from somewhere before. It didn’t take long to realize that my girlfriend had actually given me a copy of The Ween Coloring Book that Thea had created, as a Christmas gift, the year before. I had no idea that Wolfe was from Seattle, but I knew that she definitely didn’t need my limited connections. The band was already selling her work as official merchandise.
I was intrigued enough that I headed down to the school to see the paintings in person. Thea didn’t attend Cornish anymore — this was an alumni exhibit for her — but it seemed that she still lived in area. In person, the art was that much more impressive. Much more than immaculate portraits showcasing the band members playing live, these were clearly visual manifestations of genuine moments, feelings, and experiences of her own, where the group and their music was simply the catalyst. Psychedelic experiences were presented in ways that were true to my own, yet in a manner that I’d never seen rendered quite like it before. It might have even been later that same day when I first emailed her to arrange an interview, and, although I wouldn’t bother to make the effort to reconnect with her, after the article was conducted and posted, I had a pretty strong feeling that we’d organically wind up bumping in to each other again. As I type this, the first of her paintings that really struck me is now hanging next to me on my bedroom wall, and its creator has become one of my closest friends that I have to this day.
The WEEN Coloring Book is a slightly different entity. After being so profoundly struck by WEEN‘s music, the artist traveled the globe to see them perform live during their 2007 La Cucaracha tour, and, eventually became inspired enough to express her appreciation by delivering an incredibly personal offering to the band. She’s referred to it as a “love letter,” or even an incredibly special “joke,” but regardless of the label placed on it, The Ween Coloring was never intended to be widely distributed. It was a gift for the band members, and that was all it was ever supposed to be. After locating a printer who was able to produce the book at her desired specifications, and initial run of only 22 copies was produced, simply so that, beyond what she gave to the band, she would have some of her own and enough others that she could hand a few off to friends. From there, she handed a copy off to WEEN‘s longtime soundman, Kirk Miller, at a show. Both flattered and impressed by the work, the band was able to get a hold of Thea and propose the idea of selling her creation as official merchandise, leading to it becoming, what I believe that I’ve heard, was the most successful non album merch they’ve ever had. In fact, it remained in print until the time of the reunion shows a couple of years ago. If you have a copy of the book, it’s exactly the same as the original version that she produced for the group. The first page even clearly reads “For Ween / By Thea.”
Throughout our friendship, a lot has happened, over the years. Thea even stepped away from the visual art world, for a while, to train and compete in MIxed Martial Arts. She moved to Los Angeles, traveled to Thailand, live Colorado and Idaho, but eventually settled back here in Seattle. She was one of the first people to hold my son when he was born 7 years ago. She’s had at least two other solo art exhibits — I met Kirk at her most recent one — and is currently at work on a graphic novel. One thing that hasn’t happened, however, is her showing any interest in revisiting The Ween Coloring Book project. That is, until now.
During that first conversation that we ever had, I rambled off the following scattered and confusingly worded question:
“So, if you were commissioned or, beforehand, didn’t give them a close to final product, and you thought they wanted something [specifically], do you think it would have been a lot more difficult for you to create something, if you were asked to make it?”
She responded with…
“Yeah. It really wouldn’t have been the same thing. It would have been like WEEN asking me to write them a love letter, y’know. I would have just been really corny and, maybe that would have been okay for some people, but what it turned out to be was so sincere from me, that I don’t think it would have been in any way the same.
I’ve been offered from various groups and people — I’ve been asked if I would be commissioned to do coloring books since the WEEN coloring book and I’ve said no. ‘Cuz that’s really like something that’s actually extremely important to me and my work now, is just not doing anything that’s isn’t completely real and soulful. Y’know, it sounds corny, but I feel religious almost about it.”
For the last 10 years, another WEEN Coloring Book fell into that category of something that, most likely, would have felt forced, if Wolfe were to have pursued it. People have asked her to reprint it, but as she’s explained, she never personally sold it, only the band did. Last month, however, something changed and she felt inspired again. Shortly before the band’s 2-night run at The Edgefield in Troutdale, Oregon, she asked me if I had a photo pass for the shows, during a conversation that we were having on Facebook messenger. That’s when she told me that she was thinking about doing a follow up for the book, and we planned for me to take some photographs of the shows, which could, potentially, be used for reference in some of the images. Those Edgefield shows were so great, that I don’t doubt that they worked as only further inspiration for her to create. The exciting part for me is that I know that, if she was even discussing working on something like this, she was both genuinely inspired and motivated to make it a reality. For those of you who were fans of the first one, I can tell you that she seems 100% convinced that she can pull something off that’s even more amazing this time around.
After kicking the idea back and forth, Thea has now decided to make the announcement of the book official, rather than waiting until the entire thing is completed, beforehand. Along with the announcement comes a preview of a rough sketch of one of the drawings that will be included. She believes that she should be able to get most of these initial illustrations finished by as quickly as Halloween, and is also offering to provide additional work-in-progress updates and perks to anyone that’s willing and capable to donate to her Patreon page, to assist her in continuing to eat and survive while focusing her full attention toward the project.
The following instagram post breaks the whole thing down in detail, while including an image of the new sketch, as well as a video of her flipping through the entirety of the previous book. Check it out below.
For anyone that’s interested in helping to make this a reality, you can find Thea’s Patreon page at Patreon.com/TheaWolfe.
Please make sure to follow her on social media by clicking through the instagram post above, and on Facebook by clicking HERE.