Artistic License

I've often wondered what exactly the term means...
I'm not really sure still...
Perhaps, it excuses erratic behaviours from people deemed artistic... poets, writers, painters, sculptures, musicians, etc...
And the more cynical of the world go, "why not just accuse them of being void of moralistic value and contributing to society"...
They'd also say, "so he got a wall to look like a man, cooooool"(and stick of out their tongue).
No niet non nope... uh uh...
(Turns head from side to side...)
Artists witness life, observe life and record life... as they see it. They provide the real history to how life and thinking can evolve. How people evolve. No two paintings are really alike. No two lives are either.
And since art is an expression of life (although it could very well not be the reader's own), it is representative of the way someone interprets things that probably we all go through. It's a new perspective, a new expression... History too... how someone living somewhere, at some point of time, thought about life and living.
What I'm trying to say if perhaps artistics feel that they need to experience as much as they can of life to truly capture the essence of it, or their soul, in the art. Perhaps they do not judge themselves too harshly because they make their mistakes almost on purpose, usually know when to stop, where to go... and are prepared for the experience...
Either way... it's fascinating...