Don't call it ‘Art’ when it is something else

Beside ‘Art’ there are other modes of visual expression and it may be hard sometimes to distinguish them from each other.
Try looking at the the way different creations communicate with people. They can use the same means but their starting point and goal are quite different.

This pyramid can help you see their hierarchy. Starting from the material level it goes over the mental to the spiritual top. These levels are not closed.

At the base are the designers (architects, industrial and graphic designers) who translate the wishes of their clients while others have to execute their creations.
The image makers (illustrators, photographers and film directors) can create their own vision into a visual form. Which is an in between stage that can connect more with art (free) or more with design (commissioned).
The artists prime source is the ‘intuitive’, his inspiration (‘in spiritus’ - from the spirit) that comes from a higher level, not his own thoughts. He act as a ‘medium’, a mediator between that higher level and the viewer. The result of his work, which he alone is responsible for, can take the viewer, when he is open for it, to the level he is trying to express.

Each of this levels need of course talent, feeling and technical knowledge (in short: competence). But we should distinguish them among each other because they have another goal besides (hopefully) a beautiful combination of form, color and matter.

Some Flemish examples