Are we Artists or are we Artisans

An artist is defined as a person who creates his work using his creativity and skills while an artisan is defined as one who creates his work with his skill alone. An artist is credited for his or her work and even praised for it. On the other hand an artisan is simply termed as a skilled labourer, and his or her identity is always subordinate to the one who commissions the work.

Till the Middle Ages only performers were termed as artists and given their due credit. This is because their art was inseparable from them. One cannot separate dance from a dancer, song from a singer, or music from a musician. But the art created by writers, painters and sculptures are separable and hence these people then did not come under the term "artists". Then came the Renaissance and it changed the society. People who mastered their craft and those whose work stood out among others were given credit and even praised for it. So a painter, writer, sculptor, and architect got a chance to earn not only money but also name and fame. Price of the art became proportional to the popularity of the artist who created it. It went up to a limit where any ridiculous items believed to be created by the artist gained unnecessary fame.

Now let's come to the point. Work of an artist pleases the observer while work of an artisan has a functional value. But in the modern times of advertising, marketing and mass communication, are professions like graphic designer, content writer, animator, and video editor artists? Or are they artisans? Technically they are referred as artists but their work is hardly given credit. These artists' works are constantly under interference by its commissioners or supervisors. Besides that, the race of mass producing 'art' has turned it into a product with simply a functional value. Bloggers, graphic designers and animators are asked to deliver huge amount of art products in small time and hence they have to resort to taking what already exists on the internet and edit it to make it look different. This is turning every artist into an artisan making everything look the same. There are so many icons, logos and designs which look all the same.  Many articles and videos just repeat the same content that already exists on the internet without checking its authenticity. Films and series follow a 'trend' and use it like a sugarcane crusher till all its juice is depleted. Thus originality is under threat and so is art. So are we really artists of digital renaissance? Or are we artisans of corporate feudalism?