Having to explain our work to the "commun des mortels" as professionals makes the title and purported status of "being an Artist" meaningless if not ridiculous

Why do so-called "artists" have to "speak" for their work?

Is it so immature as an expression that it needs mommy or daddy to explain it, speak for it, dominate it, control its offering? Why can't our artworks stand on their own? If they individually or collectively have anything of value to say, they are the ones to do it, not us their creators. What viewers get from our work is what THEY discover, not necessarily what WE have convinced ourselves the work SHOULD mean. Why are we so afraid of setting our work free to speak on its own? What control freaks we have become in this 21st century!

As for being professional, that usually means making a living at doing what we do OR working at something else to pay the bills until that day comes when we can do "that which we wish to do" without worrying about starving.

But let's face it. "Being an artist" is probably the least professional work there is in our contemporary times. It is akin to arts and crafts, hobby activities and retirement. In our big bad world it is not considered a profession. Why? Simple. It does not have "official recognition" like other professions. Why? Any Tom, Dick or Harriet "can say they are" and call their work "art" and no one screams fraud.

Let's try calling ourselves dentist or surgeon or mechanic or accountant or physicist or a unionized labourer without paying our union dues.... just cause we want to. Why don't we do that? It could get us a serious fine or a jail sentence.

Yes, 99.9% of humans can self-express but that does not make us artists. Once, "artist" was a title given those who were recognized as "experts" in a specific field. Today it is simply a title we give ourselves as if it still holds the reverence it once did. I gave up on the superficiality of it meaning anything a long time ago. Over the years, I've come to simply and proudly be known for what I "do" - not for what "I purportedly am".

My work proves who I am, (or not). Like my creations, I don't need to explain myself. For all intents and purposes what I do is draw, paint, etc. I'm a portrait painter, a landscape painter, an expressionist through word paintings, a cartoonist, a social and political commentator, a writer, a sculptor. Whether I do it well or not depends more on those who look upon my work than on what I determine it to be. All in all, this mind set, has freed me from the shackles of wannabeism; the need to be seen to be anything special (or more than???). I like being linked with my achievements and not some superficial status which somehow elevates me to a position higher than "the rest".

Becoming an artist, if it is ever  in the cards, is a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong process over which we have no control other than through the quality of our "makings". The title of artist, no matter how much we abuse it today, cannot be "legitimately" absconded with. It is a status which can only be awarded to us by the world of viewers who, for some reason or other, consider the genie emerging from our lamp to be a mesmerizing presence and experience in their world.

Sadly, today we are too much into identity and too little into the serious work associated with that identity. And it more often than not shows it.