Walking a line...

I've always been able to draw/paint representational pictures, with a lucid and constant awareness of the abstract elements that it comprises. Similarly, I have always been able to explore my markmaking in a completely abstract manner, while enjoying the intimations (never quite deliberate) of things that appear during the process. That bundle of marks looks machine like, that hatched area looks like fibres under a microscope, a face there!
 I am quite comfortable walking the ambiguous line between representation and abstraction. I like the edges between things. At one time there was considerable pressure to decide which side I was on. Then I saw a large retrospective of the work of Richard Diebenkorn at the Whitechapel gallery (probably 1991...ish) and I realised that it is possible to be both (or neither). It was formative- and I realised that I was not alone.
Making art is a strange and frustrating process of discovery, and for some reason I still do not understand, crucially important. I discover something about my world, and present it to people in their own worlds, and a communication, albeit flawed, is made. I feel this sense of discovery and communication either way, abstract or representational, and the unnecessary distinctions fall away. I personally love making art for the way it makes me think in a feeling way, or vice versa. If I was forced by some new legislation to destroy every work I make as soon as it was finished- I'd still do it, just for that feeling.