My Morning Meditation

Today's morning tile

For me, Zentangle is as much, if not more, of a meditation practice than an artistic one.  Most mornings, summer or school year, I begin my day's routine by sitting in a corner of the couch, drinking tea or coffee, and doing a Zentangle tile.  Then, some days, I photograph it and post it to my Yankee Tangler feed on Facebook.  Which means, that the majority of tiles I post on FB and then here on my blog, were done in a morning's sitting, between 15-60 minutes, depending on my practice.  Sure, sometimes I do a larger canvas or frame or pencil pouch or even a rock but never for morning practice.  Those are my later Zentangle-Inspired Art projects.  My morning tile is all about the meditation.

I used to meditate in the more traditional way in the morning--lying down, counting my breath, and returning to my breath when I wandered into thinking or worrying.  But I found I was so ready to "do" something in the mornings, that I didn't sit well (I know, I know, judgement.)  So, now I meditate in the evenings (where the challenge is not falling asleep!) and I tangle in the mornings.  It's enough of an activity that I am not restless but enough meditation that it helps clear and calm my mind.

I embrace the no-mistakes philosophy.  Sure, I like to make tiles that please me visually and I'm happy to share those; but I mainly make tiles for the making of them, and share those, too--even when they show smudges or wobbly lines or just don't seem to coalesce.  It's all part of my practice and I want other tanglers to know that it's always a work in progress.  Practice makes progress.

Trust me, I'm an art historian and spent decades in academia and the museum world discussing composition, style, connoisseurship, etc etc etc.  I know what follows traditional artistic "rules," especially about internal and consistent light sources, perspective, vanishing point, realism, three-dimensionality, etc.  I've looked at tens of thousands of works of art from all over the world, in a variety of different media, and know what constitutes beauty, a "masterpiece," in many cultures.  In fact, I believe it is what hampered my own creativity (except crochet, which is "women's work" and never appeared in my art history classes!)  And now, I have my Zentangle practice.  Sure, the academic art historian in me wouldn't call my little morning tiles "art," though I would recognize the long-time human occupation with patterns.  But I also recognize that the tiles are pleasing to me both in and of themselves and because of their meditative value.  And if you define art as an artistic expression--which is a pretty broad definition (yep, I took theory and philosophy of art, too)--then my tiles do qualify.  But, honestly, I don't care anymore.

If you look around the web, especially Pinterest, at Zentangle tiles, as many new tanglers do, you'll see so many beautiful, almost perfect ones and it's hard not to "compare and despair."  But there is something you need to know:  sure, some of these are made using the steps of official Zentangle, but many, if not more, are perfected pieces of art not made in a single sitting--first, sketched out in pencil (sometimes even with a grid and eraser) and then traced in pen, often by practitioners trained in the graphic arts who work professionally; they are not amateur tanglers.  This doesn't lessen the beauty of their tiles, but I would hesitate comparing them to a regular tile.   I would call these Zentangle-Inspired artworks (ZIAs) and think it's important to differentiate between them and meditative  Zentangle tiles, like my morning practice ones.  Now, I find great inspiration in those amazing ZIAs made by talented Zentanglists, but I no longer expect mine to look like them; our purposes are different and, knowing that, I am not discouraged.

All of which is to say, choose your practice.  Are you tangling as meditation?  To express your creativity?  To improve your drawing technique?  To make beautiful works of art?  To sell or publish or teach?  Once you know what you want--and on different days, it might be different--have your practice reflect your goal.  I do practice my drawing technique and seek to make something pleasing to look at, but meditation is first for me.  And teaching is second, hence this post and the frequent sharing of my tiles.

Whatever your practice, happy tangling!