A thread entitled, "Zentangle Advice " in the The Fountain Pen Network caught my attention. What also caught my attention was the strength of some people's responses to Zentangle art. Below is a post that I placed network this morning. 

You can find the entire thread at the following link :

Here is my post to that thread:

“People do not remain neutral to seeing Zentangle art. Some are immediately dismissive, seeing the line drawings as little more than graffiti. Lifelong doodlers will see it as “what I have been doing for years”.  Others, captured by the line drawings, remain with eyes fixed, not quite able to pull themselves from the art, not knowing what holds them to this art form. As a therapist, my surprise has been the strength of the emotional responses of many people, (including my own, at times), to these simple line drawings.”
from "Emotional Responses To Zentangle Art", posted July 14, 2010 on the  “FromMyChair” blog. 

This thread began with a simple question, simply asking for  information on fountain pen use in Zentangle art.   Subsequent postings to this thread begin to appear;  written with much stronger emotional fervor. 

Many of the Zentangle, “tangles” do appear to be derivatives of our cultural artifacts, and of nature.  But also, as pointed out in a previous entry in this thread, some of the tangles are reflective of symbols and art forms in ancient cultures around the world.  

From this, I've drawn the conclusions that strength of the emotional responses to the Zentangle “tangles”  seems to have come from an  awakening  of some primal/primitive emotional responses within people, responses not based in logic. 

It does appear to me that the use of  “Zentangle”  as a registered trademark seems to elicit anger in some individuals as though someone had gotten a copyright on an ancient universal or religious   symbol.   I, still, as an observer of human nature, sit on the sidelines with fascination at these very strong responses. “What creates the intensity of these responses at each end of the continuum of emotions?”

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