We usually mean "visual artist", but there's very little distinction between an artist of that type and a scientist or engineer of the highest caliber, and I've never had a distinction in my mind between those two types of people.

They've just been to me people who pursue different paths but basically kinda headed for the same goal ... which is to express something of what they perceive to be the truth around them ... so that others can see it, so that others can benefit by it.

No ... I think the artistry is in having the insight into what one sees around them, generally putting things together in ways no one else has, and finding ways to express that to other people who don't have that same insight, so that they can get some of the advantage of that insight, which lets lets them feel a certain way or to do a certain thing.

-sj