Friday, August 6, 2010

Zentangle as Ignition

This past week I met with the art director of a local non-profit who is starting a new art program for young adults in the community in which she serves. We talked about Zentangle and its potential for fun and service, and we both agreed that this art form would be the perfect groundwork to begin the visual art portion of the program. As she put it, Zentangle was the "ignition" and that other art forms may come from there.
   Because this art form in designed to be accessible and adaptable, it allows even those who don't yet feel connected to their creative side to tap into and ignite the possibilities. 
   In my own experience, I can say that even a little Zentangle goes a long way to jump-starting other forms of art. Being an avid beader, I sometimes see a Zentangle and a bead design side by side in my mind. They don't often manifest as I see them, but that doesn't matter to me. What matters for me is the ignition. It gives me a spark of a start and then wherever it goes from there, it just goes. It just becomes what it will become.
   Somedays it's like the old question, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" This photo sort of illustrates this. Even though one may not look much like the other, these two things were ignited along the same lines and at the same time. I don't know at this point which came first: the bead design or the tangle play, but I do know that the more I tangle, the more my beading designs take on the open-ended process of Zentangle, "one stroke at a time" and one bead a time.
   I can't wait to see what happens with the kids in the new art program!



3 comments:

  1. Love this concept, and your great illustration.

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  2. Deb Phelps Miller (CZT)August 8, 2010 at 8:17:00 AM EDT

    Carole, thanks for the "ignition". I just returned from the Master Class in Newprot, RI where Maria and Rick had us 'tangle in the large', a process of creating large art pieces using the zentangle process and patterns in giant size. The idea of taking the zentangle process and stepping out into larger venues is both scary and exciting at the same time. I thank you for reminding me that this art form is designed to be both accessible and adaptable. It reminded me of my original training from Maria & Rick and them saying the reason they teach the CZT's is that we can take this art form to places they may never be able to reach. Thanks for the encouragement, for being my 'muse of ignition'.

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  3. Hi Deb (and Verlin!), it was lots of fun to see peeks of what you all were doing in RI. How lucky you are to get to attend. Now you get to take that and see what else happens! Fun, fun! Thanks for visiting...

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