Man oh man, Impressionism is where it all started. "It" being the turn toward Modern and then Contemporary Art. The invention of the conventional camera pushed artists to create and share their impressions and expressions of reality. Impressionism is really one of my favorites too, for how it represents such a corner being turned--really allowing me to be the kind of artist I am today instead of just a laborer. I can be a philosopher.

My favorite type of art wound up being Abstract Expressionist sculpture. I'm a kinetic sculptor myself and I find a lot of pleasure in the exploration of form, surface, and space. I used to call a lot of Ab Ex sculpture, "non objective" because most sculptures of that movement aren't abstracted, representational forms. I interviewed Richard Hunt for a class during my master's degree, and when I asked him about his "non objective" forms, he was offended, saying that they ARE representations and abstractions of emotions, sensations, and feelings. Boy did that open my mind.

Kinetics absolutely light me up though. Any sculpture that moves will excite me. My personal mission is now to create a kinetic, wind-powered form that, as it changes, always stays compositionally sophisticated.