heARTistry

Discovering the Zentangle method during one of the Covid lockdowns was wonderful as it helped fill in many hours but a bigger joy was to teach my two grandsons, then aged 7 and 10 the art of tangling. Each time they did their homeschooling with us we always made time to tangle and quite often the next day there would be a ping on my phone and a photo would arrive of their latest zentangle. So much fun.

Earth

Hearth
Heart
Art
❤️Art in everything that matters. Thank you both for sharing the brilliance of your hearts.

Oh, how I LOVE this!!!

My husband got a tile with a heart for Valentine’s Day – just like last year.
And he will get a designed tile the day after tomorrow for his birthday. He likes it very much.
I am grateful for this creative way to express myself.

An artist who has a piece of paper and a pen, including Zentangle, and who truly represents himself, thinks of you as a “heartist” in my eyes.

I don’t want you to add implications such as good or bad, because it’s the only world you have.
One of the people who is really grateful to have met the Zentangle Method.

It’s not a person who makes a name for himself in history, but the tiles he drew show only one art in the world.

I was never a doodler & couldn’t work out how to just doodle. But, when I was shown how to tangle one step at a time (a structured approach) a light bulb went off in my head & now happily deconstruct patterns & always have a paper & pencil in my handbag for whenever I need to keep myself occupied unexpectedly – sudden hospital visits is when that comes in really handy. As far as I’m concerned there’s a world of difference between a doodle & a tangle – I still can’t doodle!!

I am primarily a watercolorist and as much joy as art has given me in almost all of my 70 years…I was hoping that when I became a CZT in 2010 I could start others on their journey “one stroke at a time.” My premise was,….if they could feel successful in tangling….begin to feel like an artist….that it might lead to them taking a drawing course….and then a painting course….then….Yay! My goal had been met!! After the training, I had no idea that, as a result, seven of my students would become CZTs themselves, that I would make so many friends, have a very active Zentangle Club, and besides teaching Zentangle at community centers and for parks and rec….that I would teach at an Art Center! Valentine’s Day projects included gold leafed hearts or swirled watercolors— always dramatic surrounded by tangles! I LOVE how being a CZT brought more LOVE into my life in so many ways!!!

I am primarily a watercolorist and as much joy as art has given me in almost all of my 70 years…I was hoping that when I became a CZT in 2010 I could start others on their journey “one stroke at a time.” My premise was,….if they could feel successful in tangling….begin to feel like an artist….that it might lead to them taking a drawing course….and then a painting course….then….Yay! My goal had been met!! After the training, I had no idea that, as a result, seven of my students would become CZTs themselves, that I would make so many friends, have a very active Zentangle Club, and besides teaching Zentangle at community centers and for parks and rec….that I would teach at an Art Center! Valentine’s Day projects included gold leafed hearts or swirled watercolors— always dramatic surrounded by tangles! I LOVE how being a CZT brought more LOVE into my life in so many ways!!!

Reading Preetie Kohli’s response to this blog prompted me to pen down here my memories of that dark Covid period in 2020. Yes, I had offered that workshop, pro bono, for all the Saturdays of the month of May during which I had turned 70. It was my gift to the people to reboot their lives from the unprecedented lockdown period imposed by the pandemic of Covid.

It was very satisfying for me that over 120 people got the exposure to the wonderful artform of Zentangle through me during that month.
Gratefully, since I was a beneficiary of Rick and Maria’s largesse in becoming a CZT way back in 2012,, it has always been my practice to pay it forward the largesse to deserving candidates. After touching a figure of around 1000 such beneficiaries, I have stopped counting, but the practice continues.
Zentangle has given me a new identity as a ‘Zentangle Artist’ where as my art teacher during my school days had passed down a life sentence on me saying – ‘you cannot draw’. After 50 years I became free from that life sentence when Rick and Maria invited me as their guest to attend the CZT 09 seminar.
Thank you R & M.

Finding Zentangle definitely made my life better… before discovering this art form I would have never have called myself an artist, now I do!

Our Zentangle family is an expression, vision truly, of how the world can be if we all come from our hearts and lift one another up to be who we are meant to be. The social world of Mosaic is a clear example…every comment from contributors around this world, is positive, respectful, heart-sent and heart felt. It is a joy to my heart to be taken into this community, taught the 8 steps, the Bijouisms, the No Mistakes philosophy and all the wisdom of this meditative art form that both begins and ends with a grateful heart. I end and integrate each of my days blissfully exploring wherever my pen leads me knowing wherever we go is exactly where I’m meant to be. Thank you to all at Zentangle “Heart-quarters” for all you do!

Zentangle gives more to the heart than the expression “heartfelt”, it gives us a Zentangle family and a heartful gratitude which goes on and on because it fescu’s on to others and keeps the feelers out to more than we can imagine. Congratulations for all the love, just and heART your family gives and keeps giving. Cannot wait for the next PP!

Zentangle definitely changed my life! I have experienced every single benefit as well as gaining self confidence as I started teaching class. I have made lifelong friends through Zentangle. I could go on and on for pages but I’ll use self-control and stop here!

Love you, Maria and Rick for accepting me as I am, and for who you are,
Kat van Rooyen CZT20

Zentangle has taught me many things. First and foremost, how to effectively quiet my mind. Traditional meditation doesn’t do it as well, and sometimes yoga isn’t appropriate or practical. Zentangle is small, portable, can be done anywhere, and is extremely effective as calming my mind and thoughts. Secondly, that you can only do things one step or stroke at a time and that it’s pointless to look 5 steps to the future when you don’t know step 3 or 4. Thirdly, that anyone, including me and including you, can be an artist. I never would have imagined before Zentangle that I have an album full of hundreds of pieces of art. Finally, the combination of confidence and devil-may-care-ness to share my art with the world – both anonymous people on the internet as well as people I know, care about, and are concerned about their general opinions. I never, ever would have done this without Zentangle! It has truly enriched and enhanced every aspect of my life!

It has been my lifelong dream to be able to say, “I am an artist.” My college degree is in Graphic Design but even having achieved that diploma, because I could not draw pretty pictures, I felt I did not have the"right" to call myself an artist. When I saw the opportunity to create art using only 5 simple marks I was"called" to enroll in the class. With the guidance and encouragement of my instructor I was able to quickly master the method and found I was quite successful. That level of self confidence allowed me to enroll in several locally offered drawing and water color classes. Now in my retirement, I am comfortable saying I am an rtist when people ask me “what I do.” Thank you Rick and Maria for enabling my to obtain a lifelong goal.

Zentangle method has changed my life in numerous ways… one example is the realization that the more I practice something the better it becomes and the greater the outcome! I know this sounds so elementary but the Zentangle method really proves this to me over and over again.. Great pieces of art are an effort and a culmination of ideas that are worked on. An art teacher once reminded us students during a class to remember that even Picasso practiced his art!!

Zentangle for me is a playful way to be creative using pattern based pen strokes. It is relaxing. I love that there is the wonderful element of surprise that surfaces.

Thank you for the Zentangle method, it soothes my heart and soul.

Everyone on the zentangle team/family is a talented artist, excellent teacher and present with such a positive attitude. My comment below is only a compliment and in no way disparaging to anyone on the team. Comment: When I watch Maria’s pen flow across the paper, I am mesmerized. I could watch that all day. Maria just has a way of guiding her strokes, so beautifully and apparently effortlessly. Thank you Maria, for taking the time to make the videos. They are so soothing and inspiring.

Dear Maria and Rick, I started this comment and it disappeared. If it happened to get sent, here is the rest of it…..

Thank you so very much for the gift of the Zentangle Method. It has made my life so much richer and fuller. I not only love the practice of it, but also the teaching of it. The love and gratitude with which I share it comes back in so many ways. Zentangle drawing is one of the very few things about which my father complimented me. I often sent him cards that I had tangled and right before he died, he shared with me that he had saved them all in a folder. For my reticent and often critical father, this was truly a gift. Thank you also for the lovely tiles you shared in this blog. Every Winter Term, I always teach a class on Valentines and we always have such fun. And now I have some new ideas – putting a gilded heart in the middle of whatever pattern is such a simple idea – honestly, richness and Gratitude Abounds!!!! Thank you again.

Dear Maria and Rick,

Thank you so very much for the gift of Zentangle. My life has become so much richer and fuller through the Zentangle Method. Gratitude fills my heart and my whole being through the treasure of this gift – not only through my own practice but also through being able to share this gift in sharing and in teaching. Zentangle drawing is one of the few things that my father complimented me about and enjoyed receiving from me – I sent him many cards over the years and he cared about them so much that he kept them all in a folder – and, for my reticent and critical father, this was exceptional. Thank you also for sharing all these beautiful tiles in this Zentangle Blog. Every Winter when I teach Zentangle, one of the classes is Valentines and we all love it

Zentangle gives me connection during isolation.

Thank you Maria, for putting your heart into Zentangle. I took the CZT training in your first seminar so that I could learn to teach it. I was already teaching Origami workshops and I just wanted to add this to my roster of classes. I never dreamed it would transform my life!!! Or the lives of my students!!! And here it is 12 years later, the same 8 steps, the same supplies (sort of), the same tangles (well, on sterioids maybe!) and yet every day there’s something new and something exciting. How can that be??? It’s simple…. heart. I guess that’s just my only word today. February 14th.

The Zentangle Method means ready access to a flow state and the relaxation and ‘mental vacation’ that comes with it, and some unexpected art as a result. It also means that I can get other people to rethink their “I’m not an artist” mindset.

The Zentangle method means I actually think I am an artist. Before I started doing Zentangle I never thought I had any artistic talent. Thank you!