Zentangle

Have you ever heard of Zentangle? Maybe not. How about this? Have you ever found your mind too cluttered with non-stop thoughts especially when you needed to focus on something else? Here’s where Zentangle might just help.

Zentangle is an artform that anyone can do.  To begin a zentangle, you draw a small square on a piece of paper with a pencil. The square should be about 3 inches in both directions. Then, with your pencil, divide that square with a curvy line. Take an ink pen and start to fill in those spaces with other dividing lines and those spaces with swirls, cicles, squares, triangles, curling lines, dots, parallel lines–get it? Fill in with any sort of shape that first comes to your mind and helps you fill the space.  Here’s a video that demonstrates.

Zentangle for Beginners

Recently, I was invited to try a Zentangle, and below is a picture of what I did. About an hour after I tried it, I was in a zoom meeting, and I heard someone quote Ram Dass, and so I wrote it below my Zentangle. That’s not part of creating a Zentangle, but it reminded me of what had happened while I was doing the Zentangle. Choosing which line or shape or mark to draw next to fill the space interfered with the chatter in my mind, and I became quiet and creative. I became aware. I loved the process.  I became loving awareness. This has become my new thing to have on hand when in a zoom call–small pieces of paper and an inkpen!  Give it a try!

~Bob Patrick