Crafter, Artist and corners

Encaustic art aceo

I am not in the studio today but have been online sorting out my stall for the big CraftFest at the weekend, Hopefully its all sorted now. Please support it and visit over the weekend. Click the link for more details

In doing it I have to ask myself a question? Am I an Artists or crafter.... or both?? I always think of myself as a crafter but a few things recently have make me questioned it.

I do carefully craft each painting in the same way I used to craft my jewellery and make my Tiaras. I have been crafting for years and that included painting. But going back and taking my painting seriously again, which I hadn't done for years, just seemed like an extension of all the other things I do. ( Believe me there are loads of them) .

But like I said this has been questioned, do I take my art seriously enough and rate it enough to be an artist??? Nobody is undermining me or critisising me, but have just made me think.

I still have no answer but would love your opinion?

I am totally still in shock, about me being in the studio. A few months ago I was in a job I hated with no chance of me doing this as a job.

I have never been an overly positive person, Mr Wellydog says I am a pessimist, but I like to describe it as a realist. If I think the worst will happen then I will always be pleasantly surprised.

I am not going to go into details, but a few months back I snapped, I was no longer prepared to be bullied and undermined. I was out of luck and then out of a job. But with that came a bit of unusual clarity. I basically had nothing to loose, and so when the opportunity presented itself I didn't hesitate, I just jumped.

So why am I telling you this, well I have read on some of the forums about people being despondent and fed up that they can't take their crafting to the next level. To them, I just wanted to say, be patient you don't know what's round the corner, but when you go round it keep an open mind and you may see an opportunity you never imagined.