Anyone Can Do It?

So, this semester I am taking Contemporary Art. On Thursday we had an interesting discussion. It was the "I could do that" discussion or the "anyone can do that" discussion. The quick and dirty version of this debate is this:
Some people look at art, we will take Jackson Pollock as an example, and say "well I could do that" or "well anyone could do that" (for the record if you don't know who Jackson Pollock is and you didn't check out the link, he is the artist that drizzled, poured, and splashed paint onto very large canvas'). Which is most likely true, but would "anyone" have the idea to do it? In the end, what is more prevalent, groundbreaking or significant, the outcome or the idea?

There was a student who had a great story.
"Christopher Columbus was sitting at table eating dinner with a number of people; they were talking about Columbus finding the Americas. During a discussion one of these other people said to him, well anyone could have found the Americas. The debate ensued. Finally he handed the men each an egg, and asked them to stand it on it's end. They all tried without any luck. Finally, Columbus took an egg away from one of the men. He smashed the end of it so it would sit flat on its end. He looked at the men and said, it is easy to do something once someone has shown you how."

So is art the product or the concept? Is art any less or more hard than another profession or lifestyle (depending on how you look at it)? Personally, me, I find myself saying quite often, "Don't let anyone tell you that Art School isn't hard." If that gives you some idea of where I stand.

So it was funny because I had someone say something to me today that falls in line with this discussion. She said to me, "Yeah, but anyone can be an artist." I was a little taken back that she said that to me. Stepping back now, I can admit that is a plausible statement because I do believe that anyone can be anything they want to be, they just have to strive for it. But in the context of the discussion and the way I personally took it, it felt like she meant it in the context of the prior discussion of "Anyone could do that", meaning because art was a less advanced place of being, and that the artist was a more simple endeavor. I obviously don't believe this, or I wouldn't have been hurt by the statement.

So I guess the real question is, just because you can produce art, are you an artist?