While I have enjoyed this, I can't take more time away from meatspace at the moment to really go point for point nor do I think it totally necessary. I did want to say that I think you may have misinterpreted my last statement -

If you cannot be an artist without being employed full time as such you are not a good artist.

What I meant by this (and I admit I had to re-read the sentence 3 times to make sure that it's what I wrote, there are 3 negatives and they get confusing) was that "If there is a person who wants to be an artist, but does not feel that they are "officially an artist" unless "artist" is their technical, official, all-the-time 40-hours-a-week job in title and description, then I do not think that person is a very good artist."

By that I mean: I believe a person who wants to create art will create art. In fact will not be able to stop creating art no matter what they are doing. Whether they have a job and what that job is should mostly be completely moot. And, in line with that, I believe that someone who only feels they have succeeded in their art, can create their art, and are "truly" an artist as a result of a job title or position is a person who allows exterior trappings to define, even drive, them and what they do. (I'd also point out that for the most part, people who pursue careers in their chosen field of art aren't usually made happy or fulfilled by that work in the long run either, because they are still answering to others' requirements and visions for their art. Graphic designers create for their clients and must cater to those desires, not their own. Newspapers have to sell stories. Even if you have the job title that is supposedly the "dream art job," unless you are running your own show start to finish, I think it will fall short of "dream fulfillment."

Relying on a job position to officially Be An Artist means that when you're off the job, you're not an artist. It means that you can get fired and stop being an artist. It sure does mean you always have work, 'inspiration,' and are probably constantly creating - but mostly, for others. Not for yourself, not for your fulfillment.

So it's not about marketability. It's about whether you are an artist, or whether you happen to be an artist because you currently occupy a space that someone says is artist-shaped.

I don't need to survive off of writing in order to know I am a writer. I probably never will be able to just be a writer full time. But that doesn't make me any less of one.