Tangled Up in Blue

(For the Bob Dylan tune, click here.)

One of the things that I've learned about myself over the years is that when things get rough- really rough- I have to learn something new and creative in order to break myself out of a funk. Interestingly, I seldom pick the thing I learn; rather, it finds its way to me and just works. 

One of my tangle pieces.

My newest favorite, Zentangle, is no exception. I was looking for ideas and inspiration for a tattoo, as a matter of fact, when I stumbled across some images that struck me as absolutely perfect. I set up a board on Pinterest to keep them all in one place, and as my collection grew I started to wonder if this type of art has a name. Fortunately, one of the pins was tagged "Zentangle", so I was able to Google it.

I'm not going to go into too much on the history, but if you're interested in seeing where it all began, click here for the Zentangle official site. The basic gist of it is that the artwork is based on a series of patterns, and the repetitive nature of the pattern puts one into a mindful meditative state. (It's the Zen, in Zentangle.) This type of thing is precisely how I've doodled my entire life, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

I'm hooked! I draw every single day, now. Call it mediation or call it escapism, I don't really care. All I know is that I love it as an outlet, and I really appreciate the fact that it calms me immensely. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a peaceful creative outlet.

If you're interested in learning more about it, here's another site to peek at, called TanglePatterns. It's basically an index of all of the "official" patterns and has links to all sorts of goodies. There are lots of other resources online, including FB and Pinterest...just Google it.

What about you? Do you find that art helps you through tough times?