Art Journal Zen Tangles

The other day, my friend Lucy (@PoeticDreams on twitter or SheWhoWanders on The YouTube) was posting Zendalas that she had drawn while working at a pool for the summer.  She seemed to be having a lot of fun doing them and they were elegant and beautiful!  I decided that I would do a page in my journal and on my U-stream show about Zen Tangles.

First, I don’t do Zen Tangles very often.  I find them very close to simple doodling and I just have never been one to do that.  I don’t know why.  After reading up on them though, I realize that it is really much deeper than a simple doodle.  Doodles are just a collection of scratches that keep your hands busy.  Zen Tangles are doodles with a purpose. They require composition and direction.  They are a focus  point instead of a distraction.  It wasn’t until my show had started that I asked the question of why they are sometimes in circles and sometimes not.  My friends in the chat room informed me that when they are in circles they are more like Mandalas and are referred to as Zendalas.

I started this one on my show, but there was no way I was going to be able to finish it.  These actually require a lot of my attention and that is VERY hard to do and interact with a live audience at the same time.  During the show, I pretty much got the three circles done and the tangle that eventually made the eye.  The rest was done on camera, but not in front of a live audience.

You can watch the video on The YouTube, or simply watch it in the embedded player below:

The best part of this for me is that the folks watching the show that night were inspired to do their own Zen Tangles.  They posted them on Flickr, and Twitter, and their blogs and Facebook pages.  I was so very happy to see so many people playing with this along with me that I asked them if I could post them here.  Here they are!

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