What Is An Artist?

The Websters-Merriam Dictionary provides us with this:

art·ist
Pronunciation: \ˈär-tist\
Function: noun
Date: circa 1507
1a: obsolete : one skilled or versed in learned arts
1b: archaic : physician
1c: archaic : artisan
2a: one who professes and practices an imaginative art
2b: a person skilled in one of the fine arts
3: a skilled performer ; especially : artiste
4: one who is adept at something (con artist) (strikeout artist)

The Oxford English Dictionary provides this definition:

artist
noun
1: a person who paints or draws as a profession or hobby.
2: a person who practises or performs any of the creative arts.
3: informal a habitual practitioner of a specified activity: a con artist.

And finally from Webster's New World College Dictionary we get:

art·ist (ärt′ist)
noun
1: a person who works in, or is skilled in the techniques of, any of the fine arts, esp. in painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.
2: a person who does anything very well, with imagination and a feeling for form, effect, etc.
3: a professional person in any of the performing arts

This is almost as thought provoking as the difference between art and craft, isn't it? When I tell someone that I am an artist the first question I usually get is "What do you paint?" Occasionally I get "What medium do you use?" And then "What type of artist?" Then I try to explain exactly what I do and with what. It is much simpler if I have something on my person to show them but that is not always possible. For instance, right now I have jewelry samples scattered all over the country and few to wear! But I digress. What is an artist? I love that phrases like "con artist" are included in the definitions above.

So, what makes me an artist? According to jury panels of several art shows, I am an artist because I am skilled in a technique considered a fine art and I work in mixed media. According to the New World Dictionary above, I'm an artist because I do something ". . . very well, with imagination and a feeling for form, effect, etc." Hmm, what is the "etc." I wonder? Websters-Merriam says "one who professes and practices an imaginative art". I can identify with that and I hope there are a few folk out there who identify me as that.

So your philosophical questions for the day are these. What makes an artist? Are you an artist? Do you fit any of the definitions above? Share. You know we like to find these things out about you.

Oh, and one last tidbit. My Coral Reef Bracelet got included in a treasury:
Many thanks to OVResident for including it in his Treasury.