Press Clippings
Belgium Press Article
A great article just came out in the Belgian press about Zentangle and Jella Verelst, our Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT) in Belgium. Click image for full-size PDF.
Here's Jella's translation:
"A new artform. That's how two Americans introduced Zentangle. Jella Verelst is the first teacher in our country.
In real life, there is no eraser either
Artist and Monk
Zentangle has been developed by two Americans - Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts. She is a calligrapher, he lived as a monk for almost 17 years. The idea stuck when Rick walked into Maria's office one day and saw how she was almost in a trance because of the complete focus she had during doing her lettering for several hours. Together they developed Zentangle. Jella went to their seminar to learn all about Zentangle.
Since prehistory human-beings created art from repetitive patterns. Zentangle uses this tradition, yet is totally new.
Carefully Jella Verelst shows us some of the Zentangles she created. Zentangles are delicate drawings in pen, on a sturdy, beercoaster-shaped white card. We recognize berries, leaves and patterns that look like a checkerboard, fishscales, a parquet floor and a fishnet. And all these patterns just fit together in almost an ingenious way.
This has to be very difficult to do?
No, I teach you Zentangle basics within a session that takes 2 - 2.5 hours. Even people who are convinced that they can't draw, just do this. Because the use of repetitive patterns is simply so natural to us, it's just a part of our human heritage. People have been doing this since thousands of years. In old Egypt, the Inca's, the Kelts . . . and yes even Keith Haring.
How do you teach people Zentangle?
We start with eight patterns in the first lesson and add twelve new ones in the second lesson. We have 144 patterns, but people can just invent and use their own if they wish to. On a tile, which measures 3.5 x 3.5 inches, we first draw a string in pencil. And then in pen, you draw your tangles. You can work as detailed as you wish, and even create 3D effects.
But there is no eraser used?
Also in real life there is no eraser to erase your mistakes. You can however always move forwards right from the point where you are. This is also the way 'mistakes' simply disapear within your drawing.
I see, this is not just drawing; this is philosophy as well
One can compare the positive effects of Zentangle with the effects of doing yoga. But there is the difference that within Zentangle you are also creating something. People just leave their stress here at our doorstep as they take part in a 2-hour session. And they tell me they even weren't aware of the fact they were stressed before they started to do Zentangle.
But during this session they are completely focused?
Yes, I call this a relaxed focus. Zentangle is a meditational artform and the word 'zen' in Zentangle is not used there by accident. When doing Zentangle you increase your focus and develop creativity at the same time. Some people compare Zentangle with 'doodles'. Doodles are for example the unconsious repeating pattern you draw during a phone-call. But Zentangle really is something else. No longer is this just unconsious, creating a Zentangle is drawing lines in a deliberate way. Once you start drawing a Zentangle, you just can't stop and you do not even want to be disturbed while creating one."
Bound & Lettered's recent issue (Vol 5, Issue 1) has a great article about Zentangle, called "Tangling the Zen." On its back page is Maria's original botanical of a pomegranate surrounded by Zentangles.
