It is my understanding that when Michaelangelo would sculpt, he took a block of whatever medium he was working with, and proceded to hack off any bit that didn't look like whatever he was scultpting. By contrast, when an artist paints, he takes a blank canvas and progressively builds up layers until the end result is produced. (There is, of course, rather more to it than that.)
In this regards, producing software resembles painting rather more than it does scultpture. I take a blank slate, add various components, fit them together, and end up with a servicable program. Sometimes.
I think next time someone asks what I do for a living, I'll tell them I paint with numbers. It's at least as accurate as my previous comedy answer: confectionary machinist.
Incidentally, there is sometimes a perception that a person is either arty or mathematical. That is, you're either good at sciences or creative stuff, but rarely both. This is a huge misconception. There is as much art in the construction of a really clean and efficient automobile engine as there is in most art galleries these days, and the Eiffel Tower is a feat of tremendous engineering as well as one of the most recognisable buildings in the world. In fact, actually putting it together may have been the easiest part of building the thing.
(Also, Leonardo da Vinci is best known for the Mona Lisa. However, he also left behind notebooks featuring detailed designs for both helicopters and tanks. Of course, if you actually build these vehicles as he described them, they don't actually work. You might well call that a fairly crucial flaw, but in engineering terms, it's actually fairly small. The principles he used are sound, he just had a bunch of bugs to work out, and was prevented from doing so only by lack of resources.)
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