what is art, what is role of artist?

I uploaded a video - it is a very fast explanation of my current thinking. It will appear below this entry which was written very quickly as well.

 To summarize - if art is created in mind of observer (Eco, Barthes, Duchamp), then what is the point of the artist? As "schools of thought" and "isms" are vanishing, like cubism or post modernism, the artist is free to do what he wants and not explain... but then folks want the bio of the artist to figure out the intent. i feel ambivalent about it. I like to share my story and it informs my work, but it's a distraction.

Further if audience wants to know what fascinates or obsesses the artist, that's fine.. but my work is about transcending that. In that sense if my work has a meaning, or entertains, or annoys.. or is about me. then it's not about what I want it to be about

creating the experience of attention to attention... awareness of awareness. all that stuff arises within awareness - thus like desire, aversion, boredom, restlessness, and doubt (like the  108 earthly temptations a person must overcome to achieve nirvana.)

that said, i am being shaped by fatherhood. like right now i am typing this rather than clean dishes and put out laundry. Jennifer's hands are full with the baby. so there is a tension between my artistic goals and domestic duties. or is that a myth? maybe they are the same. if my goal is mindfulness, and I have a robot under my shirt measruing that, then I am ALWAYS CREATING MY ART.