It is hard to describe the sense of shame I feel when I carry one of my Art Works down the main street of my small town.

I think you've summed up here the culmination so many of the feelings I have about art as a craft I love but long since abandoned on the grounds of: being too time poor, not being good enough, it not earning an income, cheaper to buy mass produced (now AI can do it all anyway as well), self indulgent and the list goes on.

Art is one of those things that falls into the domain of displaying your wealth. You only have the time to create it when you are in a situation where you aren't spending every waking hour trying to survive. The next step up is that you have done so well that you have enough riches to waste money on things other than immediate needs and can display your wealth by purchasing art, beautiful garments with excessive fabric and jewellery; basically art that decorates you.

Being able to do art is often dictated by whether there is someone else who deems your work good enough to be willing to support you and gift you that time to make it. Or, as you allude to, have a job that allows you enough time to do it when you aren't working.