What is art?

Yesterday, on April 26, 2012, I had to turn in an art piece for my drawing class. After several years with this professor who I continually butt heads with, I decided to work on continuous storyboards because they were fun and I could put them in my portfolio. Below is the piece I turned in for critique, the storyboard for The Princess and The Pea.

When my piece was ready for critique, my teacher claimed it could not be critiqued because it was an illustration and a part of a different industry and thus WAS NOT CONSIDERED ART. I've butt heads with this teacher so much that I've learned not to care what he says. Although, another classmate that liked my art and did, in fact, do comics of her own, argued with the teacher and another classmate that the piece was indeed art. So thus there was a huge discussion why it wasn't art. Honestly, I didn't pay attention because I created something that I love and I consider my art more than a hobby. Although, I am greatly confused on where to go from here (since I graduate in a week and haven't gotten a job offer). I've considered concept art, story boarding, comic art, and even being a part of a gallery. I don't know where I want to go. If I am represented by a gallery I will always draw sketches of my characters in my sketchbook and if I go into a concept art, story-boarding, or comic art, I will still make paintings. Why? Because I love it all and to me it is all art, just different forms of art. (We also critiqued a guy who said that his art is what he liked and what he created and he didn't have deep meanings behind it. He just did it because he could and he loved it. My professor told him it was okay and people actually wouldn't question him if he said that. In my opinion that is false. In today's day and age, artists have to have meaning behind there art. I honestly never had meaning behind my art. I get an idea and I go through the process of making the piece and always get flack for it later on. It's just how the art world is. You need to know the art world to appease the art school, but keep yourself at the same time.) Every person has a different view of art. In my opinion, a person who doesn't study in art will lean towards more naturalistic art. An art critic will lean towards "modern" art or art that makes a breakthrough. An artist always leans to several kinds of art as a source of inspiration. An art collector leans towards art that they "like" (or in my opinion art that is greatly put on a pedestal by art critics). To some I am an artist. To some I am not. Some say that I must have art in a gallery to be an artist, others say I'm an artist when I call myself an artist, and still others say I'm an artist when I sell my art. Honestly? Everyone is going to have a different opinion. No one really knows what art is. They just know what they like. I know what I like. Yes, I could have gone to an art school that specialized in animation, but I took a chance at oils an dfell in love with it. I look back on my schooling and do not regret anything. Yes, now I'm at a loss because I don't know where to go on in life. I don't know where to go from here. All I know is that I love art. I love looking at it, creating it, and talking about it. Yes, I don't know the high art mind with the big words and criticizing view, but my art is me. It is how I express myself and it is what I do. I don't know how else to explain myself. What do you think art is?