About me

Christine, CZT

I have been tangling for over 20 years and became a Certified Zentangle® Teacher in 2023. It was introduced to me as a spiritual practice when I was on retreat with other clergy women at a Benedictine monastery. Zentangle® resonated with me; brought me calm and focus. I have been meditating through tangling, being grounded through tangling and teaching tangling ever since. By day I work as a Chaplain in a Senior Living Community and outside of paid employment, I garden, read, and build community through song with my wife. We also volunteer as puppy raisers for Canine Companions. We are raising our third puppy, Lorna, to be a service dog one day.

The Zentangle Method was developed by Rick & Maria over 25 years ago and has spread across the globe in those years. It started simply in black and white, with small 3.5 inch square tiles, pens and pencils and no erasers. And while there are still no erasers in the mix there are a multitude of kinds of tiles, pens in different sizes colors and styles. You can check it all out at zentangle.com. And the number of patterns – called tangles – has definitely exploded. Anyone can create a tangle pattern and so many people have. They can be found all over the internet.

It all starts with 4 basic strokes of the pen: I C S O. All the patterns build on those basic pen strokes. Tangling is designed to be meditative, relaxing and welcoming to anyone and everyone. The focus is on the doing and not on the making. That is, enjoy what you are doing in the moment and don’t get worried about how it will look in the end. Leave perfectionism and any thoughts about what it should look like behind. It’s abstract art and not really meant to look like anything in particular even though many of the tangles do resemble things in real life. Any perceived “mistakes” are part of the piece, making it unique. Shifting one’s perspective in this way is a small kindness and can begin a practice of being more kind to oneself which flows to being kind to those around us. At least, that’s been my experience. Afterall, we get better at what we practice.