Indentifying with your art

[John]

@Adam: Maybe there's a reason why most of the time, the word 'art' is paired with 'craft' (hence, arts and crafts!), to represent the dichotomy of a single thing. Basically, showing a subjective and an objective approach to creative activity. And I mean 'creative' in a more general sense of making something.

For the sake of argument, I'm calling out the side of being purely objective, detached from any emotion whatsoever, with this question: How many times have you gone through Artstation, or anywhere, and felt like nothing just does 'it' for you?

I've heard this so many times, over here, on the internet and in real life: "I know it's technically perfect, but it looks too (insert your adjective here that could mean 'boring', 'bland', 'same', and etc...)".

This is why it's hard to defend art as a subjective thing, because this thing we're trying to capture is not quantifiable. There's no amount of perspective grids, perfect value and form execution, math and science that can save art.

Call it soul, a piece of you, or whatever you wish to label the subjective. Whatever that thing is, it's probably just as important as the objective side for an artist. Whatever you're proposing right there, is a journey of a pure craftsman. There's nothing wrong with it to be quite honest.

Just asking, given a person is completely detached from his or her work, purely abiding by the laws of math and science, can you consider that person an artist? What then is the difference between a handcrafted piece of china and the ones you get from big factories?