thoughts on art;
as a first year university art student (failure) I carried around a little book by Hans Hoffman called "Search for the Real".  It lit my brain on fire which, 40 years later, I realize I have internalized and yet is not reflected in my art as much as in my thinking. 
I have found after "miles of canvas and buckets of paint" as a plein air painter that I am dissatisfied with my work and need to push myself beyond the 19th century traditions of painting that plein air art seems to be stuck in.  To do so I think the answer is to spend more time in the studio, exploring painting and subject matter.  If painting is like making music then I have been playing a sort of folk music when I wish to explore jazz and perhaps the divine music of the spheres.  It is my job as an artist to produce yet it is imperative to me to express the substance of truth that arises from observing the world around me. 
If it is the artist's job to effect change through his expression/work then I shall do so both intellectually and physically through the product of my work.
emotionally I am despondent at the effect of the human population overwhelming the planet.  The cancer physically, emotionally and spiritually of humanity is the problem, the solution is difficult.  we will hit the wall of mortality and the world will go on without us.  our work will only be a monument of our having been here on which nature's creatures will dwell without wonder.
an artist is compelled by his anonymity to create, in the hopes that his existence will endure and have meaning beyond the ordinary conventions of his contemporary world.
there is great need to confront the problems of our times with the truth of our effect upon the planet. confronting consequences and face the hard solutions.
don't get me wrong, there are many good people and many good things but it is evident that what is wrong outweighs what is right.  we are building a wall that will crash down upon us.  it may be too late to change.
to return to Hoffman's intellectual vocabulary with my personal visual vocabulary and thoughts I have acquired over 50 years of creative effort.
what words and images are there to express such thoughts?  I shall find them and express them without regard of what others think.