Response to Jenna's "Who is an Artist?"

Jenna asked the big ol' question of "Who is an artist?"

Artist
(n) a person who produces works in any of the arts that are primarily subject to aesthetic criteria.

According to Miriam and Webster, whoever they were, artists are those who do the above.

This is a specific definition, but it is certainly vague in its specificity. First, we must attempt to define these "aesthetic criteria." For the sake of brevity and clarity, we will assume (in this brief blog, at least) that "art" is a thing that satisfies "aesthetic criteria," i.e. something pleasing to the senses.

This opens up not a can of worms, but rather a veritable supertanker of the vermicular buggers.

A farmer reaps a field of wheat, creating visually pleasing heaps of the stuff at intervals in the field. The symmetry is pleasant, the smell earthy and good; my senses are sated. Is this farmer an artist?

An arborist meticulously tends to his fruit trees, creating perfectly rounded, high-yielding apple machines! The trees are a sight to behold, they house birds who sing beautifully, and the apples born on their branches are delicious and nutritious. Is this arborist an artist?

It seems to me that, by the dictionary definition, art and vocation, art and occupation, art and recreation, these things are all art.

Can art be produced by a farmer or an arborist or a machinist or a blacksmith?

Craft = Art = Trade?