Are you an abstract painter?

I was asked in an interview recently if I defined myself as an abstract painter. At a cocktail party, this would have been an easy answer, but to myself, I'm not an abstract painter, necessarily. Much of the terms used in our language about art must have been coined by someone who didn't make art. I make the painting I make today, because in the 20 yrs or so that I have been painting, I have arrived at doing the paintings I'm doing now as a result of an investigation. Part of every series or even every painting that I have done has been largely about learning both technically and conceptually leading me to new ways of seeing myself as an artist and in turn inspiring artwork based on a conituously evolving idea and need to make art.