artist

An artist is a person engaged in creating art, or practicing the arts. The most common usage in everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, the term is also very widely used in the entertainment business to refer to actors, musicians, singers, dancers , and other performers. The French word artiste is sometimes used in English in this context, although this has become old-fashioned. The use of the term "artist" to describe writers is valid, but less common, and mostly restricted to contexts such as critics' reviews; "author" is generally used instead. While the use of the word 'artist' is common, there is no agreed upon definition of art—this makes the definition of who is and is not an artist indeterminate. Artists and philosophers sti...