When Can You Call Yourself An Artist?

It took me two years into my painting journey before I finally told someone I was an artist. It was my hairdresser. I hesitated but felt like I needed to say it out loud to someone. I had sold a few paintings, so why was I still unsure? I had thought about it a lot by that point. Would people look at my work, see the title “artist,” and judge me for claiming it? Would my lack of formal art education make people think less of my work? Was I actually good enough to be worthy of the title? Imposter syndrome and perfectionism were working hard against me.

But really, what is an artist? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, an artist is “a person who creates paintings or drawings as a profession or hobby.” Simple, right? If you make art, you’re an artist. But there’s another definition in the same dictionary: “a person skilled at a particular task or occupation.” And that’s where I got stuck. I equated being an artist with being skilled. I didn’t feel like my abilities were at a level where I could claim the title. Even though others liked my work, I had high expectations for myself, and my skills weren’t yet producing the kind of paintings I felt truly represented what I could do.

Has that changed? Yes. But not because I suddenly reached some invisible “artist level.” What changed was my confidence, not just in my abilities (because, let’s be honest, I’ll always be trying to improve) but in the belief that being an artist isn’t about how skilled I am or how I learned. It’s about the simple fact that I create.

Interestingly, when I finally said the words, “I’m an artist,” my hairdresser didn’t react with, “Really? Wow, you must be an amazing painter!” Instead, she just smiled and said, “That’s so cool—what do you do?” And that was it. No judgment, no need for justification. Just curiosity. That moment made me realize that maybe the only person who had been questioning it was me.

So while describing someone as an artist can imply skill, the core definition is much simpler: if you make art, you are an artist. It sounds obvious, but for me, this was an internal journey. No one was going to give me permission or a certificate saying I was officially an artist. I had to decide that for myself.

So if you’ve ever wondered when you can call yourself an artist, maybe the real question is: what’s stopping you?