My abstract work is directly related to my love of Richard Diebenkorn, Mark Rothko, Edward Hopper, David Hockney, Fairfield Porter, Sean Sully and of course, countless others.  Abstract art, to me, is not abstracting a realistic object into its simple form, but a true expression of color theory combined with tactile handling of paint. When I work abstractly, I utilize all the skills I developed with my representational painting while not having to be concerned with a certain object to represent.  It is not easier, and can be much harder, but it is making a beautiful interesting work from no preconceived idea. It is making a painting that every person will feel uniquely about. I feel that all of my work is fairly abstract in its unconcern for pure realism and am surprised when others can’t see that with my paintings, they are all, abstract as well as representational, very similar in what they look to achieve.