Am I an Artist?

I recently had a great e-mail conversation with a past student. She is interested in what her next steps might be, but she is not an artist. This makes me smile. She sent me some photos of some beautiful work, but since she does not paint every day, she does not consider herself an artist.

Unlike being a dental hygienist, a doctor, a volunteer firefighter, an electrician and many other designations, no one is in charge of calling you an artist. This designation is up to the individual. You might think this means everyone calls themselves a artist. I actually think it works the other way. We CRAVE confirmation and when you don't get it, we tend to assume that we are not enough.
That sentence about not being enough, lead me to think of parenthood. The world is ready to call you parent – if you have a child under your care, you are undeniably a parent. But how many of us feel like we are ready for that? I was not. That was a classic case of 'fake it till you make it' LOL. I did not know what I was doing, but I never questioned if I was a parent – I had a baby right there to prove it! So yes, I was a parent.
Are you an artist? Do you create? Art takes many forms: paintings, drawings, gardens, a home cooked meal, a piece of music, a haircut, make up... I think there are a lot more artists then we think there are.   


Below are some of my work from 2015.  That was when I started recording and saving them.  I suppose I was not an artist in 2014?  
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