Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Am I Really an Artist?

The other day, while purchasing this awesome sketch book, the cashier asked me a seemingly simple question.
 
"So, who's the artist?" I had also picked up a couple canvases (yay for sales:D), so I guess it was a fair question. How did I respond? I was completely dumbfounded.
I somehow managed to stutter through a "Me I guess." When she followed up with "What kind of painting do you do?" I had no idea how to respond. I think I just said that I was experimenting with acrylic paint. I think, but I was so shocked that someone would actually refer to me as an artist I can't really remember...
 
Why does this bother me so much? I make art (see my instagram), so wouldn't that make me an artist? I also write, so shouldn't that make me a writer?
 
This lead to a binge of the Raise Your Hand Say Yes podcast to pump up my confidence. The one in particular that I absolutely love to listen to (I may or may not have re-listened on more then one occasion) is episode 9 with Michelle Ward called Changing Dreams. The part I enjoy most is when they are talking about labels. I mean, if we want to be technical, when someone asks me what I do for a living I say "I'm a claims adjuster"... But that's not really who I am outside work (and even inside work :P). The cashier probably had it closer to the truth then my actual job title does.

Is anyone else like this? Pretty sure I'm not the only one:)

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