I work eclectically, in visual art and in writing. I have been exploring the underpinnings of the human impulse for mark-making: the beginnings of visual art, the origins of written language, and the need we have to communicate and record our thoughts and experiences.

I have also been working to understand the deep effect of place, of the landscapes in which we live, on how we see and understand our worlds. Sense of place becomes part of language, of culture and mythology.

Because of these philosophical bases—mark-making and sense of place—I think of much of my work as "land-based abstraction". In these pages are some of the outcomes of some of my explorations.

Lorraine Martinuik lives and works on Denman Island, a small community on Canada's Pacific coast.