Art Therapy is Fun

Those who know me realize that for me, Pinterest is sort of a to-do list, but most of the time, honestly, I’m more addicted to just pinning stuff! I wish I would have learned how to monetize that, cause I’d be rich now. 🤣

The point is, I’m on there a lot, especially when I’m searching for specific things. A new recipe, a crochet pattern for beanies, and more recently, drawing tips and techniques. That’s where I stumbled upon Zentangle.

It’s a cool concept and if you put some study/relaxing/ binary beats or music on while doing it, it really is quite therapeutic! You can lose yourself in the process and time just drifts away.

I have written about art therapy before, back when I had my old blog I think. Like any other therapy, it’s a blocked off period of time for you to do whatever you need to do to feel better. Like getting a massage or talking to your shrink. But art therapy is fun!

So a couple designed this Zentangle method of drawing to prove that anyone doubting themselves as an artist has a fun, creative, relaxing process that can quickly become addictive. This morning I took my first stab at it and I numbered each square so you could see (hopefully) my progression as time went on.

I’m not sure how much time I spent doing this, around two or three hours maybe, between exercises, getting up to do this or that, because if I sat still on a chair for that long without getting up and down, I’d be in bad shape.

Inktober got me back into drawing, but the periods in-between I didn’t do much, so I decided to start practicing these Zentangles to keep the muscle sharp. Maybe after a few days of it, I’ll graduate to drawing flowers or something but really, I just wanted a way to use my ne pens and sketch pad.

There is a process, and I will link to the couple that invented it, because their story is really cool. But basically, you’re looking at a blank sheet of paper and you have no clue what to draw, so start with 4 dots. Now, draw a line curvy or straight, connecting those dots, and start your Zentangle in there.

You see number 1. square is shy, tentative, just getting a feel for it. Number two, I’m warmed up now and ready to go, but I admit, I sort of used hers as inspiration on that square. By number three, I was rolling and used another persons example to start, then took off and made it my own.

I wanted number four to be the best one, but I think I was tired, and had been up and down, ate lunch while doing it, yadda yadda. I had a break in concentration and you see what happens. But not horrible for my first try. The couple says that there are hundreds of teachers teaching this method and there’s bound to be one near you, but I don’t think so.

Ill keep researching, studying, and searching for as much material as I can find on the subject. There’s a book on Pinterest (actually several) called One Square a Day and that’s what you do. Not four like I did, just one. Every day.

That seems doable to me! Oh, and I was having a discussion with the guy that runs Helpful Cats on Substack about people feeling guilty when they aren’t doing anything productive and I said Yeah, that’s me too. I have to get out of that mindset a little. I’d rather be productive but even when I am, it still feels empty sometimes. Does that make sense?

Anyway, this keeps me safe and sitting still for a while every day and not falling on my face or into a wall like I did over the weekend. I shouldn’t have told Dave about it but it happened while he was taking the bus to Lumberton to put it in storage. I was walking across the room to get my hat off the “lamp shelf” and stubbed a shoe on the floor or the rug, idk, and next thing I’m trying to reach out and grab something -it was the lamp-and I almost took it down but the wall broke my fall and I stayed upright. Whew!

Crisis averted. I should have kept my mouth shut, but I didn’t and Dave threatened to get me a walker!! 😐 I already have a cane, darn it, but of course I only use it when things are bad. When I can hardly walk on my own. When I feel good, I tend to overdo, walk too fast, exercise too long.

But now, now I have a new creative outlet that I can practice for a while. And research to do, lol. I’ll get you that link. Here it is. No, that’s wrong Here it is. The first link is a deeper dive and an interview with Maria and Rick, who developed and taught the method to thousands. Check em both out!

Tell me your thoughts. Would you try this? Does it look like fun? Do you use Pinterest? If so, what other inspirations have you found?