When is an Artist REALLY an Artist?

I've been thinking lately about what constitutes being an artist and by association, what constitutes art itself. The definition of an artist is: 1. one skilled or versed in learned arts and 2. one who professes and practices an imaginative art (with the subsequent definition of art being: the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects). Okay, that covers quite a bit of ground there, so where does one draw the line? I know people who aren't particularly art snobs, yet consider quilting, weaving, and the textile arts in general to not be art at all, but merely crafts. If this were the case, then why would museums all over the world be clamoring to exhibit the stunningly beautiful quilts created through the years by the women of one of the poorest towns in the American South, Gee's Bend? And are popsicle sticks, glitter and an old shoe art outside of a Brownie Troop meeting? They are at the Institute of Contemporary Art. And what about the gallery exhibiting a rotting side of beef that hangs from a ceiling hook and relentlessly drips blood into an old metal pan on the floor beneath it? Is a slab of stinking meat art?

Is an artist only truly an artist if they have earned a degree in some area of the fine arts through an institution of higher learning? If that's the case, then Tramp Art can't be art at all, as not only did those artists who created it not have college degrees, but many of them couldn't even read or write. And does art only have merit or value when presented to us on a traditional support such as canvas, fine paper or board? What about art created on a piece torn from an old cardboard box, or a matchbook cover, or even a paper napkin? Is sculpture only sculpture when it's formed from marble, bronze or stone? What about papier mache, old wire coat hangers, or even chewed fat spat at a piece of plywood? Isn't that sculpture too?

I'm of the belief that an artist is an artist when they can't not create something, because it is that need to create that keeps them alive, that is second only to the need to breathe. If they aren't creating something, then they are thinking of what they will next create and how they will create it. You are an artist because you are born one. An artist is not made at a school. Being an artist comes from your heart, your head, your hands, your soul. And it matters not one whit if not one other person likes your work. It doesn't even matter if anyone else ever even sees your work. Most people agree that art is a very subjective thing, so why isn't this also granted to the artists who make the work?