Beauty in All Things

"Beauty in all things."

That’s what Maria said this morning when she saw the patterns of light and dark in the foam of the coffee I brought to her.

When we teach a Zentangle class we remind students to relax and sit comfortably. We encourage them to notice their posture and their breathing. We suggest that they do not need to hold their pen with a tight grip.

When you are comfortable and relaxed, when you have a nice posture and your breath flows easily, when the grip on your pen is gentle; then, your strokes flow more easily. It makes sense that your strokes flow more easily if you are relaxed. But your creative response-ability also flows more easily.

We also encourage our students every now and then to hold their tile at arm’s length and turn it this way and that. It shifts your perspective when you look at your tile further away because your eyes realign themselves in a different angle of view. I find it interesting that the Hindi word for perspective, दृष्टिकोण (drshtikon), translates literally as “vision angle.”

Of course, we always encourage our students to regularly “turn your tile.” When you turn your tile, it is more comfortable to draw the same stroke in different directions. Also, when you turn your tile, you see patterns and shapes differently and you get new inspirations for your next strokes.

You can apply these suggestions for tangling patterns on your tile to creating and expressing the patterns in your life:  

• Sit comfortably
• Notice your posture and breathing
• Relax the grip on your pen
• Shift your perspective now and then
• Turn your tile

And most importantly . . . Beauty in all things.



Thank you to everyone who commented on our last blog post. We have randomly selected Melissa Grudin to receive a Project Pack No. 09! Please send your snail mail address to julie@zentangle.com