NPR

From Ansel Adams To Unica Zürn, 'Scrawl' Finds Artistry Everywhere

Some might say these little works only acquire their auras through their creators' fame. But once you start pondering them, they start to seem like far more than mere artifacts of notable psyches.
Doodle by artist George Cruikshank in <em>Scrawl. </em>

If you want a nice little boost to your aesthete's ego, here's a fun exercise: Pick out a seemingly forgettable artwork and give it your attention.

Oftentimes, the result will be kind of like those stories in which someone takes off the mousy shopgirl's glasses and transforms her into a swan. Through an act of simple percipience, you can transform a work nobody else bothered to notice — maybe an oddball piece of outsider art, or a magazine, whose content consists of even humbler stuff, excel at this type of thing.) It's its own form of creation, even if it only takes place in your mind.

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