Artist Or "Artist"

Art is such a broad field that it's hard  to comment on it. Everyone has his/her own concept of what it means. I have been to art galleries all over the world, in small places and metropolises. I've seen art that looks like art to me and some that doesn't. I am not an art critic and I don't envy those who are. Art is expression of some sort, done in some sort of way, on something chosen to contain it. From that definition on, it's anyone's guess what art is. I once entertained the thought that I would like to study art seriously and took many courses toward that end. I could see that I simply didn't have the kind of dedication to become an artist, to tolerate the lack of funding and the energy that goes into it. Trying to make a living at any of the arts is almost impossible and if someone heading in that direction doesn't work in another paying field, they likely won't become rich doing it. Most real artists have studied drawing and much more formal preparation, for  a good part of their lives before they were taken seriously as artists. They have delved into colour and light and form and all the mechanical aspects of dealing with and putting material into some kind of form and order that makes art. Some amateur "artists" skip the training part and dive right into slapping paint on canvas or putting together some other sorts of things and calling it art. Who can judge whether it is art or "art", or as some would say, craft. The art that I have trouble with is when someone decides he or she is an "artist" and without conscience, whaps on paint according to something akin to what they've seen a genuine artist do, and glibly call it "my modern art". They attach high prices to their usually smeared, smudged and dripped creations and actually find a few buyers who don't know any better. They defend this nonsense by saying, well, if Picasso or Thompson or Kandinsky can do it, why can't I? What they don't realize or perhaps are ignorant of, is that true art is a matter of development over a long period of time. You can certainly "do" modern art but how did you get there? Where did you come from to get to that place? And where is it going next? The artists I mention, developed their styles by experiment and struggle to find what they wanted to say. It isn't easy to explain what they ended up accomplishing, and few of us, we ordinary people, understand that.  An artist begins in training the eye to see and draw, to learn  the basics and gradually moves on up from there. It takes a very long time and eons of thought and struggle. You can do what you want with paint and canvas, but you can't be a true artist unless you have progressed in a similar way. To paint a red dot in a white field is easy but what does it mean?  It's not what you did but where you came from and why and how you arrived at that point. That simple red dot is not simple at all.