I refer to myself as a "practicing" artist, partly to indicate that I'm active at it, and partly because the double meaning of "condition arrived at by experience" and "repeated performance for the purpose of acquiring proficiency" pleases me. One is never perfect at anything, after all, so we're all kinda practicing.

And then there's the matter of religious "practice". Last Hallowe'en the young daughter of a friend of mine, dressed up as a witch, overheard me say to her mother that I was a practicing witch and informed me quite seriously that she didn't have to practice.....