The North Devon UNESCO Biosphere exists to connect people with nature. Part of its pledge is to help nature’s recovery in North Devon. Studying endangered species of this area, I became particularly interested in the marks characteristic of flora and fauna. Recording these as drawings from species in the landscape, I was absorbed with the different marks and patterns revealed on close inspection. With many species being either endangered or having become extinct I felt an urgency to make drawings focusing on these marks which could be lost from our visual vocabulary.

In the same way that biological diversity increases the resilience of natural systems, cultural diversity has the capacity to increase the resilience of social systems. Cultural extinction can include the loss of language, traditions, habits, and customs.

These drawings set out to describe the vulnerability of species and culture as a result of the loss of biodiversity.

Marks and patterns seen in nature form part of our visual vocabulary, lost as species become extinct.