But is it art...?!

Foolin' around with your doodles...

     Our doodling need not reflect our mind-numbing environment; our subjects may or may not be present. Being an escape from formidable tedium, or simply letting off hormonal steam, the renderings are rarely complete statements, reflecting all too often the limits imposed by the timetable. And these drawings are without a necessary spark, often starting from a mere unintended streak of ink and unfolding mathematically into spider webs or boxes.
     We were younger then, and as unrefined in our emotions as we were in our pennery. Some were practicing their calligraphy, and perfecting the little hearts that dotted their eyes, while others were refining their representations of medieval swords. A few would practice their cartooning, churning out the same figure like 

a Snoopy mill.
     A glimpse into one's notebook reveals an ideographic diary of sorts, written only in the margins. Psychologists have used a student's doodles to reach them - even to discover their well-guarded secrets. Teachers can use doodle activity as a measure of their own effectiveness, or can accurately poll student sentiment towards the study material. In this way, the doodles can be a successful communication; however incidental in their creation or unintentional 

in their delivery. 
     Doodles can freely express one's emotions or they may provide much-needed sanctuary from the mundane. They may be an intended mirror of one's thoughts or a happenstance window to the world around them. Doodles may be later used to draw a single psychological profile; or may group together the prosaic, the profound and the profane for a revealing class snapshot. Whether practice or pastime, vista or vacation, silhouette or just plain silliness, doodling may start from the depths of the soul and end as a skillful expression in the margins of a notebook page, but is it art...? 

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