Is being an artist about your perspective?

Today at work, I was speaking with a gentleman who has been trained and spent years working in the culinary department. Recently, he has transferred and has become a front of the house manager. This is not a usual occurrence for those on the chef's team. Usually, the kitchen sticks together. He has interest in one day opening a restaurant with his wife and says that there, he would cook again, but for now he would like to learn the front of the house skills of management. 


I asked him if he felt like the work he had done in the kitchen was art, as a lot of chef's view that it is, his response surprised me. He told me that he mostly viewed it as function. I posed the question: could art not also have function or could something be functional that is also an art form? He agreed that this was certainly possible and stated that perhaps he simply did not view himself as an artist. This again, was very surprising to me, as this guy who I am talking about had attended one of the greatest culinary schools in the United States and had been a part of the kitchen of many great dining establishments. I would have called this individual an artist, to be certain.  He said that he could see why I would say and think those things, but that maybe he just didn't view himself that way because what he did seemed to be so logical and make so much sense to him and that when he thought of artists, they seemed to do things that seem so weird and that so few people understand.


 I suppose he was referencing that highly conceptual art that is quite a reach for the art community itself but that makes headlines. Either that or people just really have no idea what it is that is going on in the art community. I guess I want to see those lines not be such a hard and fast division, but for more people to live lives viewing themselves as creative beings, having the souls of artists. Maybe these words and definitions have been skewed or misinterpreted with time and crazy art and the general population and the art community isolating from each other and separating so that each are foreign to the other. Maybe being an artist is all about your perspective of the concept in comparison with crazy art... maybe, it is just about your perspective of yourself.