The Story That's Mine to Tell
Zentangle is an art form. Zentangle is uncomplicated pattern drawing needing few rules or materials: a pen, a 3.5” paper tile and a pencil. Because Zentangle has so few restrictions, drawing Zentangle patterns invites imagination and playfulness. Zentangle is where I landed while searching for something else.
Oddly enough, Zentangle showed up at the insistence of dragons. Someone once asked, “What is the most playful thing you can think of? What simply makes you smile?” I said, “The possibility of dragons.” From that moment on, dragons simply showed up in my life, unbidden and persistent.
The more I practice tangling, the more untangled my life becomes. Zentangle methods help calm a busy mind and give space to sort things out. The underlying premise of Zentangle? There are no mistakes. There’s no way to do it wrong, which implies that being perfect and right in our lives is simply not necessary.
Zentangle isn’t about art. It’s about the space before art. Zentangle is about the peace derived from making art, not the art itself. I've been tanlging in 2017. I’ve done hundreds of tiles. Most of them are thrown in a box when I finish. It’s not about the art.
TEACHING
I’m a retired career teacher. In 2017 I trained with the creators of Zentangle and am now one of about 6,000 in the world certified to teach Zentangle, a CZT. My students are intrigued by Zentangle because the practice is inexpensive. Tanglers simply pull out a tile and pen. There’s no set up or place to be. It’s portable and invites doing at a moment’s notice.
DRAGON TILES
Recently, I found myself driven to create tiles of my own design. Learning to bring a product to market has been an adventure and far more involved that I imagined. So not only do I practice and teach, I produce a pre-strung tile that’s playful and invites imperfect possibility.
It's time to begin. Join a class now!
