BFMC Oncology Department Offers Zentangle for Cancer Survivors

GREENFIELD — Baystate Franklin Medical Center’s Oncology Department is offering two workshops on Zentangle for BFMC cancer survivors.

The sessions are slated for Thursday, Sept. 17 and Thursday, Sept. 24 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in BFMC Conference Room C. John Nordell, a certified Zentangle teacher, will be the course instructor. The class is free, and materials will be provided.

Zentangle, a combination of meditation and drawing, is an easy-to-learn and relaxing method of creating beautiful images from structured patterns. No drawing experience is necessary. “If you can make a line, a dot, and a curve, you can create Zentangle art,” Nordell said. “It is a combination of drawing and meditation, a blend of art and spirit. Participants have the opportunity to de-stress in a gentle classroom and feel the satisfaction of creating art.”

A professional photographer, Nordell has been a corporate photographer, photojournalist, photo editor, and teacher. He was a faculty member at Hallmark Institute of Photography in Turners Falls, from 2006 to 2011, when he left to pursue a master’s degree in arts education at Fitchburg State University. Presently, he is an assistant professor of communication at American International College.

“Bring your reading glasses, as we work on 3.5-inch squares of paper,” he noted. “Anything is possible, one stroke at a time.”

Participants can register for one or both classes; the second session is a continuation of the first, so for those attending only one, it would be preferable to select the Sept. 17 session. Pre-registration is required; to register, call Baystate Health Link at (413) 773-2454 or (800) 377-4325.

The Zentangle classes are sponsored by Baystate Franklin Medical Center’s Wheeling for Healing Bike/Walk/Run event to support cancer programs and services at BFMC.