I would have to agree that an artist is an artist regardless of weather or not they make money at it. Many famous artists were not recognized as such in their own lifetimes. Then again I think the term artist requires a certain quality of work / orignality. Although some of the stuff that passes for fine art these days, well things like rotting cow parts in vats of formaldahyde, canvases that have been rolled on by a model covered in paint, a statue of the virgin Mary in excrement in a toilet, you get the idea. These are the same people that look down at us as hobbyists.