Programming is art for many of us. For some it's a craft. If you are original and independent thinker in our profession, have creative ideas nobody had prior to you, you are much closer to an artist. If you just reuse what somebody else created, you are closer to a craftsman. Where do you stand?
You equate art with originality, but Knuth do not, and most arts except "Contemporary Art" did not either. Just turn your eyes to Quattrocento or Chinese landscapes: these artists are not trying to invent something or be original. Listen to Bach: where is the inventions? It is just a natural flow of notes in a structuring harmonic frame. I do not imagine Bach thinking "Let's do something unheard" when writing his partitions.
My view is that most people that view programming as a craft are middle managers that somehow need to get ants working on whatever they need. However if your innate inspiration comes from somewhere else, if you "feel" the algorithms and their optimality, wake up during nights when inspiration knocks on your the door of your mind to start working on an idea you just saw with your inner eye, you won't view programming as a craft at all.
The difference being that we primarily create things valued for their utility, rather than their aesthetics. Video games being the possible exception, although even there the programmers are essentially building a vehicle for the art-stuff (story, graphics, gameplay, music) to shine through.
--Programmer Man