When I started programming, my whole day revolved around development. I’d wake up, write code, and go to sleep. And that’s how it was day in and day out. My entire social circle consisted of people who also wrote code. I studied frameworks, libraries, and various programming languages.
If you’re defining programming as simply translating an algorithm. Into code as is, sure it isn’t art. However, designing abstractions and the structure which allows said algorithm to work with various parts of a program seamlessly and beautifully can be art.