Different Strokes Creative Learning & Activity Centre, Indiranagar, Bangalore.

March 23, 2014.

My first Zentangle!

The participants spend about an hour-and-a-half learning the rules, names, and the structure on how to create Zentangles, only to be told by Malathi, "Now break the rules!" Now, what?

Zentangle, I guess like any other art form, needs to be learnt within a structure, to enable practitioners to get comfortable with themselves and the art. Then, the limitations that the structure defines need to be loosened and let go.

As we get familiar with the basic patterns and how to draw them, we almost inadvertently let go of the limitations. It's a cycle, draw within the structure, let go, soar and create. Set a new limitation, draw within that limitation, let go, and soar higher. And again, and again!

Is there no end? There are infinite possibilities. We realize that we cannot create an exact replica of a zentangle, even if we have "tangled" the original ourselves. Every one is an original!

Here's my first zentangle.

Cheers!

Indiranagar, Bangalore - March 23, 2014

A one-day workshop conducted by Malathi and Dilip Patel on Zentangle was announced in a couple of fora on facebook. This was it. The venue was close enough and I wrote back to both the advertiser and Dilip that I'm confirming my participation.

The venue, Different Strokes Creative Learning & Activity Centre, is a small learning space carved out on the terrace of Umesh Prasad's home in Indiranagar. It's good for about 20 people sitting. We had 17 people attend the Zentangle workshop.

Dilip and Malathi come across as grounded, unassuming folks. We get into their form of ice-breaker, where all of us wander around "aimlessly" to free the mind of chatter, (What will I learn here? What will I take away? I'm not an artist; how will I cope? Will it fit what I expect?) and ponder on such questions as, "What was something someone did for you without expectation?" And, "What did you do for someone without expectation?" And, again, "When did you feel truely loved by someone?"

Do we think about this all the time? The very words, "without expectation," themselves, in my opinion, lends to forgetting these episodes.

We then got a double introduction, what is Zentangle? ... and how did Malathi and Dilip get introduced to, and get immersed in this art form? The story is so poignant, and is full of what "Providence" is, in all its meaning.

And then, Zentangle itself! About half-an-hour into our activity, almost all of are wondering, "How did I do this? I can't draw a curve for nuts, let alone a straight line!"

"Anything is possible, one stroke at a time!" So true.

We use pencils, and pens, but there is no eraser around. "There are no mistakes," says Dilip. "Things happen, and we cannot change that." What has been drawn stays drawn. Move on ...

After Malathi and Dilip have demonstrated how a complex-looking pattern named "Paradox" can be easily mastered, we are all in a different world. We have no sense of time, or place. We are all "in the now." All of us have achieved a "meditative" state, without the rituals or practices that are usually attendant with learning to meditate!

 Nirvana? Maybe not. Certainly a huge sense of achievement! I've learnt to draw! I've forgotten time!

Bangalore - November 30, 2013

THE HANDMADE COLLECTIVE, was a 4-day sponsored, exhibition organized by A Hundred Hands. There were stalls with many interesting exhibits ... embossed metal work, re-used and re-cycled paper products, ceramic pots for plants, an NGO raising funds selling small solar products, and as always a host of food stalls.

What got my attention was a stall manned by a smiling face and lots and lots of unusual patterns that were obviously hand-drawn, going by the name of Zentangle. It was artwork. The brochure mentioned meditation, and I was hooked. (I've been looking to music, art and cycling to help me during those moments that I lose control of my temper!) Off late, I've become a student of human behaviour, and this art seemed like it could have its uses in that realm.

Next step, follow-up with Mr. Dilip Patel for more information and how to get into this new art form.