An Artist is As An Artist Does

I prepared my various tax envelopes for mailing the other day and fell into thinking about the IRS’s definition of “artist”. Actually, the IRS doesn’t have a definition of “artist”, just a definition of what is a business. This time of year finds me thinking about what an “artist” is in more functional terms. What makes someone an artist functionally is different from defining them based on their work itself. Functionally, I, and the IRS, think of an “artist” as being someone who actively creates and engages in selling their work. More specifically, the IRS expects that an “artist” also make a profit from selling their work (at least at some point).

My functional definition of an artist in total is probably a bit different from that of the IRS. I think of artists as also studying their medium, exploring their vision with that medium, and sharing that vision even if not offering it for sale (but I’m more likely to think of someone as an artist if they do sell their work). I think of an artist as being passionate about what they do, passionate about art in general, and passionate about interacting with other artists. At some level I even care if the work being produced is good , but it doesn’t seem to be a requirement for me to think of someone as an artist. Is that weird?

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