When are you a What?
Interesting topic showed up on a couple of different boards on different subjects that I follow. A couple are professional boards and the others are general groups with a mix of professionals, amateurs, and fans. The topic of discussion is when do you call yourself what. When is one a professional? An amateur? An intermediate skill? A novice?
Some organizations have very clear lines as to when they think you are what. One of the groups I belong to is by invite only from another member who can vouch to the group that you are a professional in the field. In most Masquerade contests the lines of where you fall are pretty well drawn especially if you have entered there a number of times. I know that I will be entering higher than novice in any contest. It would be unfair if I did. There is nothing stopping anyone from entering at Master Class if they think they are up to it. The fuzzy area sometimes can be when someone should move from the general categories to the upper level.
Art Shows are an other example of this sort of thing. Some have rules that state how you should list yourself and others leave it to your discretion. Mostly for show judging then anything else. It allows amateurs not to have to go against William Stout or Dave McKean for an award. For some you have to have made professional sales within the field of science fiction and fantasy art to be considered a professional say a book cover or illustrations for a gaming book. I have heard complaints of artists sandbagging and claiming that they are not professional so they shouldn't have to compete at that level. I have also heard a lot of noise about people who create art for conventions and the web but don't sell book covers or to galleries being told that they are NOT professionals even if they can prove that most if not all of their income comes from these sales. These people can have problems getting into some of the conferences that have juried art shows like World Horror or World Fantasy since they have no "professional" credits to show for their body of work.
Doll Shows are another venue that have a whole set of rules as to what you call yourself when. Considering how the judging is set up in a lot of those figuring out how you should enter can be more complicated then your tax return. You have to read the rules very carefully. For some you have to be a teacher of doll making to be in the professional category for others a percentage of your income has to be doll making related. There is also an Advanced and Intermediate category along with novice and professional. I figure intermediate is the same as it is in costuming. You can really only be a novice once which is the first time you enter one of these shows. After that you are in the intermediate category. Some think that you are a novice until you win any sort of award and then you move to intermediate. Advanced is a bit trickier and you usually have to go to the rules to see where you fall. For some it is the number of awards you have won there or elsewhere. For others it has to do with how much of the doll is an original design by the doll maker. If you are an advanced doll maker in their eyes then you drafted or created the whole pattern yourself (The pattern discussion is a whole other topic that has gone on for pages on more doll groups than I care think or read) but to others this makes you a professional. It does really come down to what the head of the show thinks as to what constitutes what in their show.
Personally I consider myself a professional puppeteer and other theatrical arts. I even have an Equity Card to prove that I am a professional Stage Manager (again a whole other can of worms). As a doll maker I feel I am an amateur as compared to other doll makers that I know. In an Art show I don't list myself as a professional because the % of my income that comes from my art sales is not to the point that I feel I have to call myself such. But I enter puppets you say and you said you were a professional puppeteer. My answer is when I have to compete against other puppeteers where my work is being judged as a puppet not as an object d'art then I will list myself as a professional.
I am grateful that I don't have to pigeonhole myself that often.
Some organizations have very clear lines as to when they think you are what. One of the groups I belong to is by invite only from another member who can vouch to the group that you are a professional in the field. In most Masquerade contests the lines of where you fall are pretty well drawn especially if you have entered there a number of times. I know that I will be entering higher than novice in any contest. It would be unfair if I did. There is nothing stopping anyone from entering at Master Class if they think they are up to it. The fuzzy area sometimes can be when someone should move from the general categories to the upper level.
Art Shows are an other example of this sort of thing. Some have rules that state how you should list yourself and others leave it to your discretion. Mostly for show judging then anything else. It allows amateurs not to have to go against William Stout or Dave McKean for an award. For some you have to have made professional sales within the field of science fiction and fantasy art to be considered a professional say a book cover or illustrations for a gaming book. I have heard complaints of artists sandbagging and claiming that they are not professional so they shouldn't have to compete at that level. I have also heard a lot of noise about people who create art for conventions and the web but don't sell book covers or to galleries being told that they are NOT professionals even if they can prove that most if not all of their income comes from these sales. These people can have problems getting into some of the conferences that have juried art shows like World Horror or World Fantasy since they have no "professional" credits to show for their body of work.
Doll Shows are another venue that have a whole set of rules as to what you call yourself when. Considering how the judging is set up in a lot of those figuring out how you should enter can be more complicated then your tax return. You have to read the rules very carefully. For some you have to be a teacher of doll making to be in the professional category for others a percentage of your income has to be doll making related. There is also an Advanced and Intermediate category along with novice and professional. I figure intermediate is the same as it is in costuming. You can really only be a novice once which is the first time you enter one of these shows. After that you are in the intermediate category. Some think that you are a novice until you win any sort of award and then you move to intermediate. Advanced is a bit trickier and you usually have to go to the rules to see where you fall. For some it is the number of awards you have won there or elsewhere. For others it has to do with how much of the doll is an original design by the doll maker. If you are an advanced doll maker in their eyes then you drafted or created the whole pattern yourself (The pattern discussion is a whole other topic that has gone on for pages on more doll groups than I care think or read) but to others this makes you a professional. It does really come down to what the head of the show thinks as to what constitutes what in their show.
Personally I consider myself a professional puppeteer and other theatrical arts. I even have an Equity Card to prove that I am a professional Stage Manager (again a whole other can of worms). As a doll maker I feel I am an amateur as compared to other doll makers that I know. In an Art show I don't list myself as a professional because the % of my income that comes from my art sales is not to the point that I feel I have to call myself such. But I enter puppets you say and you said you were a professional puppeteer. My answer is when I have to compete against other puppeteers where my work is being judged as a puppet not as an object d'art then I will list myself as a professional.
I am grateful that I don't have to pigeonhole myself that often.