You are witnessing a self-defining moment. Well that's what artists do - create and recreate. Themselves as well as their art. They are their art. Well that's the case for this little black duck anyway.
Given the recent admission that I hate painting artist by nature: painter by default and in honour of honouring myself, I have decided that I must now set about re-defining what it is I do. A friend asked 'do you need a label', for which I promptly replied in my fastest two-fingered typing ' yes, it's part of the process'.
I turned to the most obvious source for my solution, typed a few words into Google and sleuthed out limner. It's a bit subversive, or at the least slightly inarticulate - it doesn't slide off the tongue and it sounds ancient, which it is, and why I love it even more. I am just a little pissed that others have discovered it before me....
A limner is one who 'depicts by painting and drawing'. It originated initially in relation to book illustration, referring of course to illuminated manuscripts. It's archaic meaning is derived from illuminator (of which I know I was one in a past life) It is also used in reference to the 'art of untrained and unnamed' artists - so true! In the game of words I love playing with these multi-layered meanings, illumination is something I am also passionate about.
So limner it is, I is. You might see it on my business card, or my website, and you will know what it means.
