Art Speaks: The Language of Expression
How Art Materials Inform Mark-Making, Meaning, and the Creative Process In Art Therapy
An important perspective within art therapy is considering what art materials can teach and how they inform the process, the therapeutic relationship, and therapeutic dynamics within the profession and practice of art therapy. Materials help shape expression, mark-making, and the creative process, just as the therapeutic relationship and the dynamics of an art therapy session do. Mark-making is the foundation of visual language in art and is needed to inform the process and practice of art as well as any other creative process.
Why Materials Matter In Art Therapy
Why do materials, media, and art tools matter in art therapy?
Art therapy is an integrative mental health profession grounded in art-making, the creative process, discussion, and traditional talk therapy approaches. Making art is foundational to the practice, but so is reflecting on what happened during the process: how the experience is discussed, what observations arise, and what patterns may be explored further with a client.
Art therapy can attend to both the finished artwork and the experience of creating it, although the process is often emphasized over the product. Creating art can offer information that supports reflection, resolution, and revelation within the therapeutic process, with allowance for nuance and complexities to surface when noticed and observed. The experience of art therapy, even with similar directives or prompts, will yield different experiences for individuals and even within group settings.
Mark-making is the beginning of the visual language of art. Mark-making is not limited to drawing or traditional drawing materials. Almost everyone can make a mark, and each person develops a unique way of doing so as a personal visual language. This is as unique as someone’s handwriting.
The art world has formal names for many types of marks, including sgraffito, cross-hatching, and stippling. Although these techniques may be associated with particular art forms such as ceramics, drawing, and painting, they are not necessarily confined to one medium.
Think about the way you write your name. The size, width, pressure, spacing, movement, and even the color you choose will differ from someone else’s choices. Each characteristic contributes to the distinctiveness of your mark.
Materials also offer different possibilities, limitations, sensations, and forms of feedback. What might a pen, watercolor brush, colored pencil, piece of clay, or unexpected object reveal about how we create? What might we notice when we become curious about the experience rather than concentrating only on the finished product?
Art therapy can make room for insights and realizations before, during, and after art becomes part of the therapeutic process and relationship.
Art-making can also support therapeutic outcomes involving sensory awareness, somatic experience, emotional regulation, empowerment, and trust in the creative act itself.
Externalizing an internal experience is a powerful part of art therapy. Emotional pain is not always visible in the way a broken bone may be visible, nor does it necessarily come with clear instructions about where the pain hurts or how the pain might mend. Creating something tangible can give form to an experience that was previously difficult to see, describe, or understand. The artwork and the process of making it may offer insight into what is needed next.
Life is already complex. For some people, visual language not only expresses an experience but also helps explain what was present all along—something that may need to be witnessed, understood, and processed. Within the therapeutic relationship, art therapy offers the safety, containment, and compassionate witnessing that allow these processes to unfold.
Materials Offer Lessons, Lessons Inform Experience, Experience Informs Expression
I work with all kinds of art materials and media as an art therapist and artist. These include clay, paint, textiles, and traditional drawing materials, as well as found objects, recyclables, and items not typically considered art supplies.
When we create art, we are not simply acting upon a material; we are also responding to what the material presents. Working with intention and focused attention can deepen our sense of presence and engagement.
For example, markers, pens, and other tools without erasers may present a challenge for someone who feels uncertain about making decisions or committing to a mark. Watercolors may invite responsiveness, flexibility, and a willingness to allow the material to move in unexpected ways. Clay may offer a grounding and centering sensory experience. Colored pencils often require repeated pressure, attention, and layering to achieve the depth of value imagined. Found materials may need to be rearranged, altered, or combined before they begin to feel connected.
This feedback can inform many areas of exploration in art therapy, including attunement, relationships, and interpersonal and intrapersonal dynamics. It can also enrich art-making pursued for recreation or the simple joy of creating.
There are layers to therapeutic work, just as there are layers to the creative process. Interactions with art materials can provide information, much like words do. They may help us notice how we respond to uncertainty, make choices, adapt to change, tolerate frustration, seek reassurance, or allow something unexpected to emerge.
These observations are not fixed interpretations or judgments. They are invitations to notice patterns that may contain more nuance and complexity than initially appears. The meaning of a mark is personal and depends on the individual, the context, and the experience of making the art.
Creativity and the Possibility of the Unexpected
One of the freeing aspects of making art is the opportunity to create with unexpected materials from unfamiliar sources. A scrap of paper, a piece of packaging, something natural or found in nature, or an everyday household item can become part of the art making process.
That possibility is at the heart of creativity.
Although creativity is often associated with art, it is not solely about artistic ability or art-making. Creativity also involves the capacity to remain open to possibilities arising from unlikely places. The creative process allows us to imagine alternatives, make new connections, experiment with what is available, and respond when an original plan changes.
I love working with mixed media and multimedia. I use mixed media to describe incorporating more than one artistic medium into a piece. I use multimedia more broadly to reflect the possibility that almost anything can become part of the work.
Art-making involves technical skills and guiding principles, but it also offers freedom and flexibility. How those qualities appear in creative expression varies from person to person, and that is a beautiful thing to witness.
There is no single correct way to engage with a material. The way one person approaches a page may be entirely different from the way another person approaches it—and both experiences can be meaningful.
Mark-Making as a Visual Language
Watercolors, colored pencils, and a simple BIC ballpoint pen are among my go-to materials. Each one invites a different pace, type of attention, and area of focus, and a relationship with the creative process.
Pens, markers, and other tools that cannot be erased teach me to make marks intentionally. The focus is not on avoiding mistakes. Instead, it is on trusting the decision to make a mark and embracing the opportunity to continue, respond, adapt, or begin again until the marks feel cohesive with the intention.
Drawing is often associated with precision and realism, but its foundation is mark-making—each person’s visual and expressive language.
A mark can be light or forceful, hesitant or assured, repetitive or spontaneous. It may form a recognizable image, or it may remain a line, shape, gesture, or texture. Regardless of its form, it records an action. It offers evidence that someone was present, made a choice, and interacted with the paper or canvas or whatever surface was used.
Marks provide evidence of our presence, while expression becomes the embodied imprint of that evidence. What may seem like a simple act can hold profound nuance.
The Lessons Within Familiar Materials
Different materials invite me into different ways of working, thinking, and being.
Watercolors teach me patience and how to slow down. Connecting with a fluid material does not necessarily mean mastering watercolors through control. Instead, watercolors may require responsiveness, flexibility, and a willingness to allow what presents.
Water moves, just as feelings and thoughts do. Colors meet one another. The paper absorbs moisture at its own pace, while its edges provide boundaries within which the water and pigment can move. I can guide the process—as an art therapist facilitating another person’s experience and as an artist engaged in my own art-making—but I cannot control every part of it, nor do I want to. Control is not the goal; sometimes the invitation is to give permission and let go of expectations or anticipated outcomes.
Letting go, releasing, and surrendering are common themes in art-making, as the creative process can encourage us to face truths about ourselves and our life experiences.
Colored pencils teach me about building layers and following through. A single layer may appear faint, but the color gradually deepens through repeated attention. They also invite me to consider relationships among values—the range from the darkest dark to the lightest light—alongside hue, harmony, rhythm, contrast, and the composition of the larger piece.
A ballpoint pen offers another kind of lesson. Because its marks cannot be completely removed, the ballpoint pen encourages commitment. A line that does not move as planned can be incorporated, repeated, transformed, or allowed to remain. The drawing can continue without requiring the first attempt to be perfect. Perfection does not exist in art-making; perfectionism is the antithesis of trusting the process because perfection demands that unrealistic expectations be met.
These are my own responses to these materials. Someone else may experience watercolor as energizing, colored pencils as restrictive, or pen as freeing. No material or medium carries one universal meaning.
A common misconception about art therapy is that artwork is overly analyzed or interpreted. Although art therapy includes formal assessments distinct from projective drawing assessments used in psychological testing, an art therapist does not impose an interpretation upon a client’s work. Instead, art therapists encourage and invite exploration, helping clients identify, address, and process what emerges within the artwork and the therapeutic session.
I want my clients to understand their artwork on their own terms, not necessarily mine. I also continue to learn through my personal art-making and my own therapy. Ultimately, it is the relationship between the person, the material, and the creative process that creates an opportunity for exploration.
Art-Making and Meaning-Making
Even simple materials can offer meaningful lessons and bring inspiration, motivations, preferences, and patterns into greater awareness. I do not believe these meanings are necessarily hidden or inherently esoteric. They may simply be less readily recognized when someone is unfamiliar with art materials as a form of expression and mark-making as the foundation of visual language.
Art-making offers room for allegory, metaphor, symbolism, and meaning-making. There is often much to draw upon.
Sometimes meaning appears while the work is being created. Sometimes it emerges later, after sitting with the image or even after several pieces are created in a series. The value also lies in the sensory experience or in having made something without needing to explain the process at all. That’s enough too.
The artwork does not need to be analyzed for the process to matter. Meaning can be present in the choice to begin, the willingness to experiment, the experience of staying with discomfort, or the discovery that a material feels enjoyable.
Making art connects us to our humanity and, in doing so, to a genuine part of ourselves.
An Invitation to Explore
I invite you to take a few moments to explore a material that interests you. It does not need to become a complex project, nor do you need to create a polished, finished piece. Even doodling on a sticky note is enough, and stick figures count. You might choose a familiar material or experiment with one you do not usually use. As you create, consider:
Do I like making this kind of mark? The silky smooth feel of oil pastels or the tack/tooth feel of a pen on textured paper?
What feedback is the material giving me? Do I resist? Do I yield?
Does this feel comfortable, uncomfortable, enjoyable, or frustrating? Why? You do not have to know why, but stay curious with what comes up.
Do I have a story with this work or reflective thoughts? What might the process be teaching me or telling me?
What might the process reveal about our inner worlds that we didn’t notice before or see clearly enough?
Notice what happens when you allow yourself to experiment, make marks, and become curious about the process. There is no requirement to interpret what you create or turn your work into something recognizable. Give yourself as much—or as little—time as you would like. The invitation is simply to notice: the material, the marks, your responses, and the possibilities that emerge when you begin.
Art therapy is a mental health profession facilitated by a qualified art therapist. A self-directed creative activity can support reflection and enjoyment, but a self-directed art activity is not a substitute for therapy or individualized mental health care.
Interested in Art Therapy?
If you are navigating grief, loss, a life transition, emotional overwhelm, or an experience that feels difficult to put into words, art therapy can offer another way to explore and express what you are carrying.
The 3 Brushes, LLC provides in-person art therapy for children and tweens, teens, and adults in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Explore my services or schedule a complimentary 20-minute consultation to learn more.
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If you are curious about how art therapy may support you, I invite you to schedule a complimentary 20-minute consultation to explore whether this approach feels like a good fit.
When words are not enough, support is still possible.
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