Where is my art going?

It seems a strange question to ask, but is not art a process, a vehicle of ideals unattained and the promise of greater images unmaterialized? It is impossible or perhaps wrong to try to define art, be it in terms of manifestation or purpose....
But I cant help feeling lost after looking back at my year's work thus far and perhaps feel a tinge of regret that I have not been pushing myself hard enough as an artist. (this was further corroborated by another's observation at a studio I paint); I was merely indulging my sensual preferences. 
Perhaps I have been too enamoured of the myriad of images that life and nature around had to offer, I was obsessively seeking proprietorship of those fleeting moments, trying to capture their essence in paint and transpose them on canvas that would make dainty decorative elements for my walls. I was being a documentarist, my oils were still too faithful to nature, nothing much new was created, merely reflective, perhaps slightly distilled, imperceptibly amplified...perhaps sporadically worthy of beauty, but only beauty outlined and observed, not beauty created from within into infinity...it annoys me to know that I have capitulated to photographic behavior instead of heeding the call for the triumph of painting...the truth hurts and the truth is I havent been a creator of much, instead, mucking around in craft apprenticeship.
But this new found awareness breathes new purpose in me. I have a goal to work towards, I feel reinvigorated, a little daunted perhaps, but I have my work cut out for me next year. My images will be less mimetic, more seeing will be done with my mind's eye, trimmed of illustrative elements, greater emphasis on sensation. I shall strive for the right equilibrium between the figurative and the abstract for emotive impact, to remain truer to my statement of finding form for these invisible pulses of life, the rhythm and cadence that nature has imprisoned or neglected in Man but thankfully equipped Him with the devices to resurface these energies...I aspire to an authorship of a new visual syntax, my works will try to be no mere image-emotion associations, but as if they exist on their own accord, as if they have assumed a life and right in our world to be seen...only thus would I come nearer to the notion of what creation is...

Michaelangelo - The creation of Adam

Random thoughts on contemporary human portraiture

The idea of portraiture has changed for modern man for he has come to realise that he is no longer in ownership of his image, that his appearance is a perceived phenomenon that is distorted by social devices such as convenient stereotyping and personal opinions formed of conflated memory and documentary fact. Man's appearance has become a blended brew of image associations that arise out of reactions to his presence.
Acknowledging this would give the artist greater freedom and license to freely interpret his experience and knowledge of the sitter via more innovative artifices.
These are indeed exciting times to re-explore the human form and expression in portraiture....