Art is skill, that is the first meaning of the word.

It is the theater God would have built if he had the money.

The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art's audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.

Th' adorning thee with so much artIs but a barb'rous skill;'Tis like the poisoning of a dart,Too apt before to kill

A beautiful hand-bound book is part skill and part art. It's fine for Claudia to say she's not an artist. But it can't be lost that the reason for her success is her sense of design and aesthetic. She may be a bookbinder first, but there's a lot of artistry involved.

The essence of intelligence is skill in extracting meaning from everyday experience.