in the beginning

I spend much of my time writing and reading.  I’m totally devoted to the written word, but sometimes, just sometimes I feel like I need a break from it.  Time spent with something different, something abstract and relatively meaningless.

I can’t remember where or when I first heard about Zentangle, but I decided to get a book about it, as I still prefer to read from paper pages rather than a screen.  I bought a copy of Beckah Krahula’s One Zentangle a Day. 

After a few pages of reading about all the ideal equipment I might need I decided to see what I could achieve with whatever I had to hand.  And this was the result – 

Today's tangles : Static - the zig-zags, which can tend to being more curvy lines if I'm not very careful.  Tipple - which could be named after bubbles in a favourite drink but which always makes me think of stones on a beach.  Crescent Moon - which looks like a sunken spider's web when done in larger areas. 

While doing it I realised I was probably thinking too much about the process to get much of the intended ‘zen’.  It felt somewhat strange to be using a pen for something other than word creation.  But liberating too!  Coming back to the written word afterwards felt a little peculiar. 

Whilst drawing the tile I found I liked the wavy lines more than the straight.  And I found that the tangle I liked least in practice I liked most in use (Crescent Moon).  It felt strange to draw lines towards me as opposed to pushing the line away as I do when writing.  Krahula urges a line to be drawn as if pulling it toward you, to give a greater level of control.  In progress this brought about a sense of taking in as opposed to giving out? 

To me my first tile looks like a ragged cloth, scrunched with emotion – bearing one big hole that might look through to a brighter day.