Another forerunner in the use
of light as an art material is Robert Irwin, who was associated with the Light and
Space movement in California (focusing on the sensory
experience of art), and used neon in a less sculptural and more
tactile way than Flavin.
The sense I get is that your more tightly - expressed work and your more abstract work are polarities
of your visual /
tactile approach to painting: the tighter work has more to do with vision and the more abstract work slips deeper into the
experience of space as explored through touch.