YES! You get to decide.

Hi Mel,
I just visited your website and your work is beautiful! I believe that we artists self-select. That means that only you get to decide if you are a “sort-of” artist or an “emerging artist” as your bio states. When I looked at the gallery of your work, I saw a real artist and really lovely work. Decide it in your heart first to show up as an artist – even if it’s only a few times a year. I wish you the best in your work.

A lot of it is a mental health thing, so a lot of the time I’m low-energy and feel so invisible in general that I make or send out superficial content even though the only sign that someone is reading it is a statistic or an occasional comment, or a “like”.

A few times a year I get into an almost “happy” kind of mode where I’m really productive and end up posting pictures online every day in great bursts of, like, a week, and then it’s gone. ha!

I wish I could be super personal and make people feel like they really KNOW me, because that seems to be a really good trick, at least online. But not even my closest friends know me so it’s hard.

I like to tell myself that it’s because of my day job that I don’t do the things I’m “supposed” to be doing (applying to shows, painting everyday) but that would be lying to myself!

Ellen: It sounds to me like you’re totally committed. There’s nothing “sort of” about you.

I did say that inconsistency leads me to believe that someone might not be committed, but there certainly are life circumstances that account for inconsistencies.

Your spouse is very lucky to have your support. And I know this experience will inform your art somehow – if it hasn’t already.

Thank you for sharing your experience, William, and your article.

I sympathize with your situation, but I doubt Alyson was making a statement that was set in stone. Many artists like to do lots of projects. They get excited about it for time and then quit. In part they no longer show up for work. That being said, I too have been on the side of caretaker, and even though the daily weight of that has been shifted I still spend almost the equivalent of a work day each week visiting my Mother in a nursing home which is a necessity. If I didn’t she wouldn’t be alive today. I teach art classes as well and with all my other responsibilities it does not allow time for me to delve into social media platforms like Facebook. ( For now I cringe at the thought) I do have a blog and like you my writing and posting is sporadic, but I try to do something each month, not each week and I try to send out news a couple of times a month to my email list. I sell also on eBay which is sort of social as I’m building new clients.
In the work place there’s something called a leave of absence where an employee leaves the work force for a time and then return. It applies to artists. You’re still an artist (your identity) but you’re on a reduced work schedule or in the case of illness, you’ve had to take a leave of absence.
I did write a post that you may find of benefit. It’s called Finding Beauty in Small Things. It was about care giving. There’s a trait that artist’s have that when applied can help even in this situation.
http://hagermanart.com/blog/finding-beauty-small-things/

Or perhaps you’re an artist, and care deeply about your work, but you get blindsided by life. I used to sell professionally, but these days I can make work and blog only sporadically — sometimes very sporadically — due to chronic illness and the demands of caretaking a spouse with progressing Parkinson’s Disease. I agree that people who are actively selling and serious about making a career of it need to be consistent and keep a professional presence online. However, I disagree with your assertion that I (and those like me in similar situations) should no longer be entitled to an identity as an artist at all.