"Oh You're an Artist"

In theory society revers artists and puts them on a pedestal of sorts. In the real world artists are looked at with a good deal of suspicion and often not without cause. You are somehow the "other". I never refer to myself as an artist. When asked what I do I simply respond I'm a painter. Then I have to clarify that I paint pictures not houses which usually elicits the response "oh you're an artist".

Seated Figure, oil on linen, 7 3/4" x6 1/2", 2007

The title "artist" is used much too freely. There are lots of artists who don't make pictures at all. You could be a cook or a bricklayer and take your work to the level of artist. I'm a painter. I aspire to be an artist.