What if I'm looking at a rock. I didn't place it there, nor did I create it. If you believe in God (which I do), then you could certainly say God created it. It may be beautiful and I may enjoy looking at it, and it may even serve a purpose as decoration or as a doorstop. But is that "art"?

I do feel that nature, Creation, itself is what art seeks to imitate or allude to. Take the Golden Mean, for example. It is found in the nautilus shell and many other examples. Art that imitates/adheres to that "rule" as one of its principles (but not only that) is a component found in many great historical works of art.

So personally, I feel that nature and the world around us is a great source of inspiration and understanding, but I feel that art itself comes from an expression of that.