Zentangle as Ignition

This past week I met with the art director of a local non-profit who is starting a new art program for young adults in the community in which she serves. We talked about Zentangle and its potential for fun and service, and we both agreed that this art form would be the perfect groundwork to begin the visual art portion of the program. As she put it, Zentangle was the "ignition" and that other art forms may come from there.
   Because this art form in designed to be accessible and adaptable, it allows even those who don't yet feel connected to their creative side to tap into and ignite the possibilities. 
   In my own experience, I can say that even a little Zentangle goes a long way to jump-starting other forms of art. Being an avid beader, I sometimes see a Zentangle and a bead design side by side in my mind. They don't often manifest as I see them, but that doesn't matter to me. What matters for me is the ignition. It gives me a spark of a start and then wherever it goes from there, it just goes. It just becomes what it will become.
   Somedays it's like the old question, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" This photo sort of illustrates this. Even though one may not look much like the other, these two things were ignited along the same lines and at the same time. I don't know at this point which came first: the bead design or the tangle play, but I do know that the more I tangle, the more my beading designs take on the open-ended process of Zentangle, "one stroke at a time" and one bead a time.
   I can't wait to see what happens with the kids in the new art program!