I consider what I do as my craft, art is something I see as being more spontaneous, you can mess about a lot more. I think you can to a certain extent be artistic in the design phase but once the work starts isn't it just manual labour? You've settled on the pattern/colours whatever, you know how you intend to lay them so off you go.
Personally I have a method of work which means I can switch off once I start setting and only periodically check in to see I'm not making a pigs ear of it, which I shouldn't have if I've planned it properly.
I see artists as those who have very little constraint in their own medium, painters for example can throw loads of different paints on their canvas, spread them all around and then call it a finished work. With tiling you will always have to be working to a useful end, your finished job needs to be fit for a purpose and not just be pretty to look at. This I think separates the artist from the craftsmen. Anyone can become an artist just by having a go at something, craftsmen need to learn certain skills before they can carry out their trade.
Personally I have a method of work which means I can switch off once I start setting and only periodically check in to see I'm not making a pigs ear of it, which I shouldn't have if I've planned it properly.
I see artists as those who have very little constraint in their own medium, painters for example can throw loads of different paints on their canvas, spread them all around and then call it a finished work. With tiling you will always have to be working to a useful end, your finished job needs to be fit for a purpose and not just be pretty to look at. This I think separates the artist from the craftsmen. Anyone can become an artist just by having a go at something, craftsmen need to learn certain skills before they can carry out their trade.