Will the real artist, please stand up?

I was really lucky to have known Michelle Anderson before the gallery, because I was able to talk a lot with her afterwards about her artwork, the gallery, and how everything went down for her. I was even able to sign her guest book, which made me pretty happy as well. But one of the most interesting things we talked about, was the concept of real art, and if there was such a thing. We've been talking in class about advertisments and such, and if they are considered art, and then this past week two out of the three walls of the gallery were covered in graphic design. Don't get me wrong, I love graphic design, and I thought some of the stuff in the gallery was awesome promo stuff. But what about Michelle's work? Creative expression, paint, photography...all things I couldn't have done in a million years. We talked during class about whether or not we could just create abstract art, and I admitted that I couldn't. However, I'm pretty damn good with computers and feel that some of the promo stuff, I could have created myself.
I think there is an emotional level thrown into Michelle's art, as opposed to the other two artists. I feel like graphic design, although it is art and I strongly believe that, is commercial art. Consumer art. Capitalist art. Where paintings, photography, moments in time...are captured. They just are. Without anything else around them, with nothing to promote and nothing to gain, they can exist. They require no computer, no program, no printer. They require a human, and a paint brush, pencil, pen, charcoal, whatever...and they are sprung into life.