How much of art comes from the artist?

Paint by numbers is the beginning instruction to one who wishes to learn to paint. While it may number among the great arts or creations, it is an art in and of itself. The seamtress who can follow a pattern and sew is more talented than the one who tries to emulate them and cannot sew even a straight line much less thread the machine.

I read an interesting piece today by Edith Wharton, "To read is not a virtue; but to read well is an art, and an art that only the born reader can acquire. The gift of reading is no exception to the rule that all natural gifts need to be cultivated by practice and discipline; but unless the innate aptitude exist the training will be wasted. It is the delusion of the mechanical reader to think that intentions may take the place of aptitude."

I really think this applies here. How many of you could create the programs to make a computer write poetry? I know that I don't know how to do it.

Also (before my feeble old mind forgets), does art have to be qualified and by whom? If beauty is in the eye of the beholder (and we all know this to true!), isn't art also in the eye of the beholder? So, therefore, wouldn't computer generated poetry be held to the same guidelines and be beautiful in the eye of the beholder. After all, we don't all hold the same qualities to judge beauty. What one of us declares to be immensely beautiful another of us finds hideous. 

----- LIFE: I messed up, can I have a 'do over'?