Zentangle and Spirit

Zentangle and Spirit, Ann Coakley and Sadelle Wiltshire 

Sadelle and I are looking forward to talking with other CZts next Saturday evening at TangleU about their spiritual approaches and practices with Zentangle: personally, as teachers, and within spiritual community.  It is one thing teach this wonderful drawing method that can enrich our student lives, but what about the Zen thing?  Or even mediation, or more challenging the spiritual/religion part? We are not ministers, nor are we theologians.  We do have spirits that need tending to, as is the human condition. We have embraced Zentangle for a variety of reasons, one importantly being the care for our spirits, creative and otherwise.

It is funny that we "discovered" Zentangle via a minister while staying at her home to attend a conference on unrelated matter.  She had a collection of small and seemingly miraculous drawings (Zentangle tiles!) laid about her dining room table. She said anyone could make this! We scoffed, yet were intrigued.  The rest is history. We, like so many, find the art, both process and the product so engaging, enjoyable and personally rewarding.  Apparently, almost anything can be tangled if it presents with a blank space.  And yes, coming full circle to our first encounter with Zentangle, we have had moments of people being in disbelief that anyone can make Zentangle art, after seeing our tangled art. The celebration of this magical art has an unintentional way obscuring the underlying spiritual process.

It is easy to push back away from the "Zen" part. It may not be easy to find, even with a spiritual or religious community, an opportunity to talk and share about the "spirit" aspect of Zentangle.  It could even be daunting to discuss Zentangle within one's spiritual or religious tradition, particularly if Zen, or Buddhism, are unfamiliar or raise the concern of being in conflict with ones spiritual experience or traditions.  In the more secular world, there is the notion that spiritual matters are not fitting to ordinary everyday conversation, but belongs to the more private.  The outcome is a very small space, if any, to talk about Zentangle as practice for our spirits. 

So we have an opportunity next week at Tangle U to start the conversation among CZTs about Zentangle, in conjunction with our spiritual lives and faith backgrounds.  The line between spirituality and religion can be fuzzy and somehow a moving target.  Yet Zentangle is a practice that nurtures us spiritually. Though it is not in itself religious, it can be used in different religious settings. Some of us have already done this and some wonder how they could. As CZTs together, we can grow the place to share how Zentangle and art more generally, can and does enrich us and perhaps also our spiritual communities.   We invite you sign up and join us next Saturday evening as Sadelle and I facilitate this opportunity share our personal stories, discoveries and questions, and grow space for CZTs to share about spirit in our art practice. Here are a few questions warm you up:

Is there a connection between your artwork/practice and your sense of the Divine?

Do you have personal art and faith story to share?

To learn more about Ann and Sadelle go to www.tanglevermont.com