Is Writing Art?

I suppose I'm still steamed up about that writing workshop I attended. I went because it was a two-day workshop (there are two half days to follow in a couple of weeks) and it was free. I also went because you always have to be open to learning new things. I suppose I did. What I learned is that the people in that room who painted, sculpted and created didn't consider writing art. For them writing was something that served their art.

I don't tend to get all misty-eyed about writing. I do it and I enjoy it. Writing is also a craft. By that I mean that those who write have a skill in using words to create a picture or an atmosphere. It also takes skill to take a particular phrase and build an article or a blog post around it. (I'm sure many of my fellow bloggers will agree.)

But writing is also art, in my view. This is because it involves the 'creation of beautiful or significant things', as Wordnet puts it. Words tend to live with us even when the authors are long gone. This is true whether you're talking about the Declaration of Independence or Macbeth. And it's also true here on WritingUp. Every day we read blog posts that touch us in some way; or posts that astound us with their beauty and thought.

So yes, darn it! Writing is art as well as craft, at least for me.

What do you think?