The mark adds the lifeblood to your art which sets it apart from anyone else's. Your personal mark or gesture is literally as unique as your signature. Whatever we do in the course of making work begins as a mark on a surface. Marks are the building blocks of any work of art, the language of unspoken words, achieved through a wide variety of methods and materials. 

With this lecture, we will explore the profound connection between artists and the natural world through the lens of mark-making. Artists who harness landscape, nature, and natural processes as primary inspirations utilize mark-making not just as a technique, but as a vital expression of their artistic identity. Each mark, whether deliberate or instinctive, breathes life into their work, forging a unique visual language. Transforming natural elements into photography, painting, printmaking, crafts, fiber, sculpture, installation and performance and utilizing familiar materials and processes such as the body, smoke, fire, stitch, beeswax, found and industrial materials, the marks can serve as both the foundation of content to the content itself.

In addition, the innovative concept of the found drawing-drawings that arise as a by-product, rather than any formal process-is introduced and discussed A brief overview of the historical significance of mark-making and line in various art movements from the expressive lines of the Abstract Expressionists to the meticulous marks of traditional Eastern calligraphy is included for context.