This Is Not Religion!

Hello!

I returned from Providence, RI a few weeks ago with my new Certified Zentangle Teacher certificate in hand! I had a great time, met so many wonderful folks from all over, and learned a lot about tangling, pens, paper and possibilities!

One thing I became aware of whilst at the seminar was that there are not rules that define how a tangle is "supposed" to be drawn. The basic, bare-bones tangle is presented, and how each of us interprets and then creates the tangle is up to us. It's liberating.  So, if you ask 10 different tanglers to draw the same tangle, you would probably get 10 different interpretations, none of them wrong!
(This is not religion!)  There are characteristics to each tangle, to be sure, but there are no rules that  say one cannot interpret each tangle in one's own way.

We tackled a new tangle called "ING", not sure why, but it was challenging at first, and required some time to play around with it and discover the possibilities:

These are a couple of my tiles where I experimented with Ing. I prefer organic shapes, so I worked at rounding edges. It's basically a zig-zag pattern.It sort of looks like two hour-glass shapes put together.
(I can't give you the step-out online, but you can learn this tangle from your local CZT.)

We also worked with tan paper, called "Renaissance" tiles. I am still playing with the techniques needed to work on the tan paper, but here is my first Renaissance tile:

 We worked on Zendalas:

And we were introduced to a new product, a 2" square tile called "Bijou". These smaller tiles are great for monotangles:

I LOVE these little tiles, and want to buy a bunch of them!

The "Doodle" Heresy, not Just-a-Doodle

I will touch on this briefly, as this is the one subject that does remind one of religion!
Rick and Maria state that Zentangle art is not "just a doodle." The dictionary definition of "doodle" is that it is basically mindless marking; marks that have no artistic value . Many of us self-proclaimed doodlers do not consider our marks as worthless. We doodle on our notes to help us integrate what it is we are listening to. Sometimes those doodles are pretty fantastic. So, what we need is another term to describe that type of mark-making. We use "doodle", because we do not know what else to call it. If we go by the dictionary definition, no we are not doodling.  I like to call that type of art "intuitive." Maybe we could call the drawings that accompany listening "integrative drawing," as it helps us to remember what we are being told. At any rate, Zentangle art is not doodling. I don't have a problem with people referring to it as "doodling," because, like me, that is the only word they know to describe this linear, pattern-y art form. I do tell them that it is not really doodling, but I know what they mean and where they are coming from. Maybe what should change is the definition of "doodle."