Only when the sentiment is kitsch is it not art; we all agree on that. Certainly, but what is kitsch? If only I knew that! I find such determinations of value based on feelings too subjective and vague. If I'm not mistaken, the words "art" and "artist" did not yet exist during and before the Renaissance. Architects, sculptors, and painters as the time were simply considered practitioners of craft.
The graphic arts are also an honest craft, and I consider it a privilege to be a member of the guild of graphic artists. Cutting with a gouge or engraving with a burin in a woodblock polished mirror smooth is not something on which you necessarily pride yourself; it is simply a pleasant type of work. The only thing is that as you get older it takes more time and effort and the chips fly somewhat less tempestuously about your workbench than they used to.
So I am a graphic artist with heart and soul, but the rating "artist" makes me feel to a little embarrassed.
Escher Exploring Philosophy
(The Philosophy of Escher's
work is Uncertainty of
Postmodernism)