I believe though that to be an artist really requires that you have renaissance capabilities...yes, much like Leonardo daVinci...you must be a scientist, intuitive, inquiring, hypothesizing, experimenting....seeking solutions and new answers, a cook, someone with a flair for flavors (this is my simile for color composition), capable of multitasking and ambidextrous...left and right brained, someone willing to make a mess to make something great, and not worried or afraid of the aftermath in the cleanup, someone who savors!, and you must be a child, not that i want to revert back to being five again...heck, I barfed in the one room kindergarten classroom on the first day of school...., but someone who has the ability to see something for the first time, over and over again...to bring that to each piece of art, BUT KNOWINGLY!
These are the qualities that I think help shape an artist.