The creators of Zentangles, Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts, enthusiastically promote the advantages of guided doodling, describing it as "fun and relaxing. It increases focus and creativity. Zentangle provides artistic satisfaction and an increased sense of personal well being."They sell kits comprising high quality paper tiles, pens and pencils, an instruction book and DVD, and patterns for "Tangles". The Zentangle empire appears to be growing rapidly, with classes and weekend seminars on offer, and even a program to train licensed teachers.
It's a brilliant idea, and my congratulations to Maria and Robert on their entrepeneurship. Much of their work, and that of their students, is decorative, but is it Art? 
MMM,brilliant as you say, but i think it has more to do with entrepeneurship than with art.
ReplyDeletere decorative: i have been pondering that for a long time.the ceiling in the sixtine chapel, the stanze by raffaello, to name 2 off the top,were meant to be decorations. i'm inclined to think that the issue is between "godd art" and "bad art", between content and just surface.
Thanks for your visit.and sorry for the long message
neki desu
most of that looks suspiciously like the results of some of the exercises I used when I was an Art teacher - a Primary [ elementary school ] art teacher!
ReplyDeleteso I guess what I'm suggesting is that yes it's art provided the 'artists' are 5 -11 years old :]
Ah, yes. This is exactly the site that inspired my doodles. The entrepeneurship is, indeed, impressive. But, of course, you can doodle quite nicely without the special stuff! Is it art? I'd call it an artistic exercise and something that might lead to art. Worthwhile for artists and aspiring artists, especially if you don't see it as a final product.
ReplyDeleteOh, and a PS. I'm glad you left the comment on my blog which led me here. Your baubles are fabulous!
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