Representation is not always that representational.

"My Girl in Blue" is definitely the first representational piece I have really made in a while. But the more I look at my work, the more I realize that it all represents something, stems from something or was based off of something. I don't mean idea, I mean flat out visual representation. My Girl fits somewhere, maybe even on the more abstract end of the spectrum. It's a made up girl, mostly based on emotion and mostly stemming from a compositional idea. I wanted to make a very sensual piece in blue, black and yellow, and the marks created a body very quickly. In that regard, "My Girl in Blue" may be more abstract than my other work. It was a mistake that happened to create a person to embody the feeling I wanted to portray in the piece.

   

 "Lights of 35" is painting that stems from a time-lapse video a friend made of cars driving on the highway at night in minnesota...

 

"Storm on the Mountain" was based on a documentary about Mt. Everest and the tragic 1996 disaster. 

Just a couple examples there, but you can see what I mean. Something between the inspiration and the brush on canvas changes drastically to the point that most of my art could easily be considered, and usually is, abstract. Even the most abstract pieces start as a visual, representational idea.

"My Girl in Blue" creates a very strange interaction between representational and abstract.

 

Yes it is a seated woman viewed from behind. But it's not anyone in particular and I didn't originally intend for it to be a figure. In that way, it's completely fabricated from my mind, an abstraction of a thought, and only representative of a feeling...pretty much the embodiment of abstraction.

So anyway, in musing about my art, there really is never a set group style or movement I would consider myself to be exploring, rather a general "note taking" of the things I am thinking, seeing and feeling, and really, the brush creates the ending product. 

It's art YO! it doesn't need to make sense, it doesn't need a name, it doesn't need a reference, and you don't need to explain it. Just take a step back and if you feel anything, I'd say it worked.