License to Doodle -- and about time too...

My friend Kim recently taught a Zentangle workshop with a group of enthusiastic teens.  I'm as skeptical as a teenager when looking at new artistic concepts, so I had to give it a try, especially after hearing it described as "yoga for the mind"...  

Now I'm smitten with Zentangles (I'm also a new fan of tanglepatterns.com).

Zentangles haven't improved my drafting skills, and I've yet to feel the full-on benefits of the mind-yoga connection, but I find the hands-on repetition soothing and meditative.  Sometimes, after a long day,  my brain is too tapped out to paint.  Or I don't have my watercolor/pastel/sewing supplies handy.  Zentangles are a good solution.  Plus, I found that I can watch a few kids on the beach while I'm doing them -- I'm a lousy lifeguard when I'm painting...