40 | AUGUST 12 • 2021
I
f you’ve never heard of Zentangle —
the relatively new art movement of
purposeful doodling until one reach-
es a Zen-like state — you’re not alone.
But Oak Park’s Samm Wunderlich is an
expert on it.
She discovered it by chance.
Wunderlich grew up in Pleasant Ridge,
attended Ferndale Public Schools and
graduated from Central Michigan with an
undergrad in psychology and recreation
therapy, something, Wunderlich said,
most people haven’t even heard of. She
belongs to Young Israel of Oak Park.
As a recreation therapist, Wunderlich
worked with people who’ve had traumatic
brain injuries, helping them reintegrate
into the community through their per-
sonal interests.
“I specialize in cognitive skill retrain-
ing, such as social skills. I’d take clients to
community settings where they needed
to interact with the world, and I’d coach
them through the steps needed for the
interaction,” Wunderlich explained.
In 2011, Wunderlich was working at
Havenwyck Hospital in Auburn Hills.
One of the tools the staff informally
used was a how-to book on Zentangle.
Wunderlich found the concept fascinat-
ing and often flipped through the book
herself. Intrigued, she looked up more
information and found there were class-
es for anyone who wanted to become a
Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT).
Wunderlich immediately signed up. She
discovered Zentangle had been invented in
2008 by Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts, a
husband-and-wife team in Massachusetts.
Roberts noticed that when Thomas, a cal-
ligraphy artist, inked her patterns or embel-
lishments, it was hard to get her attention.
Thomas was able to break down what she
was doing into easy-to-follow steps for
Roberts. Soon some of their friends and
neighbors got in on the meditative fun, and
the Zentangle Method was born.
ANYONE CAN CREATE
According to Wunderlich, it’s simple;
anyone can do it. She’d been prepared to
adapt the Zentangle Method for people
with lower cognitive abilities and motor
skills but found she didn’t have to.
“It’s just repetitive geometric abstract
swirls and patterns. Really, anything
repetitive and deliberate can be relaxing
… It might look like doodling, but we
don’t like that term, because there’s a
negative connotation; it makes it sound
absent-minded, which is the opposite of
the Zentangle Method,” Wunderlich said.
Wunderlich began using the Zentangle
Method more pointedly with her clients
and word quickly spread. She later had a
following in a Ferndale art studio and has
been giving private art classes out of her
home, stopping periodically when she got
married to her husband, David Faust, in
2019 and during the pandemic.
Supplies are portable so she’s also run
Zentangle workshops at bat mitzvah par-
ties, birthday parties, in various dining
rooms, and even corporate events, as well
as classes at nursing homes and indepen-
dent living facilities. She’s had between one
and 150 people doing Zentangle at once.
In 2018, Wunderlich went back to col-
lege to get a research degree and ended
up with a master’s in program evaluation.
“I went from one field no one heard
of to another!” Wunderlich laughed. She
works with programs and organizations,
usually nonprofits, many of which are
funded by grants to help figure out if
what they’re doing is working and how
ARTS&LIFE
ART
Meet Samm, a certifi
ed
Zentangle teacher.
Creative
Therapy
RINA HENNES SABES
JESSICA BELICKA
Samm Wunderlich
ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
continued on page 42