Artist, Artisan, or Crafstman?

Artist, Artisan, or Craftsman?

When someone takes on a question that has been discussed and debated for centuries, he probably should be considered a little bit crazy. The question of what are the differences between an artist, an artisan, and a craftsman is one such question. I’ve read essays by writers who are completely convinced of their own points of view and argue vehemently for them. I’ve been called crazy quite a few times, so I’m not afraid to share my own thoughts on this subject.

Are their differences between the artist, the artisan, and the craftsman? I’ll give away a hint of my conclusion right here. The answer to that question is “Yes and no.” But let me additionally ask: Does it really matter?

Let me begin with what many people think, and I’ll approach this as if there are definite differences. Some have said an artist is someone who makes something with no planning or pre-thought, for no intended utilitarian purpose, and with no intent to reproduce that same piece of art. Some would also add that a true artist is not involved in the business side of art. An artist should not be concerned with attempting to create a piece that has commercial appeal or monetary value. The French, l’art pour l’art meaning art for art describes this view of an artist as someone who makes art for art’s sake. I would add that this kind of artist is probably where we get our idea of a “starving artist.”

A craftsman, many believe, is someone who has honed a particular set of skills and creates something that may have some artistic qualities, but that creation has a utilitarian purpose and will be reproduced. A craftsman generally will use tools, whether hand tools or power tools and will do the same type of work over and over again.

I believe people have varying ideas of just what an artisan is. Many would say an artisan uses a certain set of skills to make the same product or a series of similar products repeatedly. The thing produced is normally an everyday utilitarian product. Some people would say, though, that since the word comes from the same root as the word artist, the artisan is something of an artist, but maybe the artisan does create to sell.

Then, there are a lot of people who have varying ideas about who is an artist, artisan, or craftsman. But often, no matter what the definitions are, I think craftsmen and artisans generally are reluctant to refer to themselves as artists, because society seems to hold the artist as someone somehow above and apart from the rest of the world who aren’t really into the world as most people are.

The supposed differences in these three terms and how the world in general looks on the people who use those terms to describe themselves, makes it difficult for artistic people to choose the term that best describes them. I am one of those who has wondered what single word I would like for others to think of when looking at my own work which is one reason I’m attacking this question.


Words mean something, so let’s dig a little into the origin of these words. To do so, I’m using the Online Etymology Dictionary which you may find at www.etymonline.com. The word art comes from the old French word that meant “skill as a result of learning or practice.” The original Latin word artem means “work of art; practical skill; a business, craft.” Later, in Middle English, the word carried a sense of “skill in scholarship or learning.” We still give it a similar shade of meaning when we say Bachelor of Arts. In the eighteenth century, fine arts were defined as “those which appeal to the mind and the imagination.”

Today, we may think of the term artist as identifying one who “practices the arts of design or visual arts,” but historically an artist was “one skilled in any art or craft.” The Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary defines an artist as one who (1) “practices or is proficient in one of the fine arts, (2) “is proficient in a performing art,” or (3) “exhibits exceptional skill.” We hear all three of those uses of the word today. We certainly call someone who paints beautiful oil paintings an artist, but we also use the word to refer to those who are actors, singers, or dancers. We may also hear someone who cooks awesome food dishes called an artist.

Craft originally meant “power, physical strength, might.” In Old English the meaning was expanded to include “skill, dexterity; art, science, talent.” Eventually the word came to mean “trade, handicraft, calling,” and so craftsman first referred to a “member of a craft guild,” and the verb craft meant “to make skillfully.”

Artisan comes from the Italian and ultimately from the Latin word that means “to instruct in the arts.” An artisan would then be someone who has been instructed in the arts and who is skilled in the arts, making its definition not so much different from that of artist. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language says an artisan is a skilled workman or craftsman or an artist.


I would submit, then, that there is very little, if any, differentiation between an artist and an artisan. I think current day appellations like artisan bread, for instance, might muddy the waters. One may be creative baking bread, and baking bread might be considered an art in some respects, but most people really don’t think of a baker as an artist. It’s as if the word artisan is now used to embellish and commercially promote something like a good loaf of organic, well-baked bread. And there’s not necessarily anything wrong with that, but this is how our language becomes less than clear over the years. The meaning of the word artisan, as a noun, is truest to its roots in the English language when used to describe someone who is an artist, not necessarily in the fine arts but equally so in fine or not so fine arts.

My definition of an artist is “one who uses inborn imagination, expressiveness, originality, or creativeness utilizing tools and materials available to bring into being something seen previously only in the mind’s eye of the creator.” And I see an artisan as an artist who will create in the same manner as an artist would but with a view to making something to be sold or given to others to be put to some purpose. That purpose might be a utilitarian one, an aesthetic one, or both.

A craftsman is primarily someone who uses learned skills to reproduce items of useful or aesthetic value. If there is a line between the artisan and the craftsman, it is a fine one, but the craftsman might not involve the creative process and the imaginative gifts to the extent the artisan and artist would.

I hear so many people who create arts or crafts, when asked whether they consider themselves artists or craftspeople, reply that they are both. And I believe most or all craftsmen do actually use their artistic gifts in creating their crafts, while all artists also use tools and skills learned which makes them craftsmen as well.

There tends to be a feeling in society that the craftsman works on a lower plane than an artisan or an artist. I do understand how tempting it must be for someone who has been formally and thoroughly trained in fine arts to feel and maybe to act superior to those artists who use what they have to create and express the artistic longing within. But history has proven in all fields and all types of education that those some might think of as inferior often prove to be the among the most revered in their individual fields.

So then, it is not important to try to draw lines between the artist, artisan, and craftsman. Actually, I think it is fairly impossible to do so. Every individual has artistic and creative gifts. I submit that all of us have the desire and the need to create art for art’s sake, even if some do more so than others. Being an artist or creator is a part of being human, of being created in the image of the Creator of all things. We should not feel a compulsion to narrowly define who is an artist, who is an artisan, or who is a craftsman. None of us human beings ever creates something from nothing, and we all, when we do create involve the artist and the craftsman that is born into each of us.