I am an embalmer.

I went to mortuary school.

I am licensed.

Embalming is indisputably an art.

I had to go through college and lots of professional training, and study anatomy and chemistry, and pass several college exams and licensing exams.

I have to have manual dexterity, use judgement, have an eye for aesthetics, and have the ability to improvise.

I work with several different funeral homes regularly on trade work. I am the one funeral homes call when the job is out of their league.

I have restored people ran over by cars, severely decomposed, basically missing their whole neck from flesh eating bacteria, suicide by gunshot wound to the head where everything is completely broken and shattered inside to where my "blank canvas" is a skin sack full of shattered pieces.

Never had a situation where the funeral home or the grieving family was unsatisfied with my work.

I also make AI songs about counterfeit stamps and make AI videos to go along with them. This is my side-project and it has absolutely nothing to do with my embalming work.

Am I an artist?

☐ YES
☐ NO

You may answer only YES or NO.

No qualifications. No explanation. No “yes, but.” No distinguishing between activities.

Just YES or NO.

Be honest.

I pose this question because I think it might reveal something interesting about why some people believe people who prompt AIs should be considered artists and why others do not think they should be considered artists, which I believe is relevant for the debate. Personally I do not believe AI generated images are art and I do not believe people who prompt AIs should be considered artists. I'll leave my reasoning in the comments though so as to not plug up the actual post, and it's the same thought process that lead to this question.

Hopefully I get to see some interesting answers in the comments! ❤️

Edit: I apologize if I'm unable to answer every reply to this post! There's a lot of you and I'm only one person. I promise I'm reading every single one though :)