Vision is the power to imagine and visualize possibilities. Having visions entails utilizing intuition to make plans, diagrams, and preparations for both team and individual endeavors. Forming a mental picture of how the team will be organized ensures it will be much easier to organize smaller tasks into manageable, larger undertakings. Any time one embarks on a new journey, he or she should embark with visions arising from thought, reflection, meditation or fantasy.

We practice an ongoing philosophical discussion concerning the nature of art and what it means to be an artist from the perspective of the individual creator. Clients and students determine for themselves the roles of artists and the elements of art. What role does creative imagination play in art? Some individuals think of art as being intuitively or even divinely inspired; whereas, others believe art is merely a discipline or a combination of intuition and discipline. Certainly, the balance is different for various individuals, and many disciplines fall into the category or art.

An artist is a person with unique skills in one or more creative areas and may include writers, musicians, chefs, painters or others who actively form original products and ideas. Artists have imagination and find joy in creation. An artist may strive to produce aesthetic works, mundane creations or products that deliberately lack aesthetics altogether. How one chooses to be an artist or live the artist's life is a personal choice that only the creator-client can make for himself or herself.

There are various types of intelligences from which artist's benefit. At Creative Art Coaching International, we reflect upon academic intelligence, creative intelligence, kinesthetic intelligence and emotional intelligence. Perhaps kinesthetic intelligence is one of the least understood forms of intelligence. If kinesthetic intelligence were fully appreciated, it would enhance other realms of creative activities and learning. Whereas many people have high IQs and demostrate intellectual prowess, learning does not stop with the left brain. Rather, we all can be more productive if we develop our intuitive sides while utilizing physical activities to improve learning, and enhance our ability to get along with others.

A hybrid of art ideas (IAH) refers to the beauty of taking two or more supposingly opposite concepts and making them into one. Writers, dancers, and visual artists combine ideas that do not ordinarily go together. Contrasting juxtaposed themes add uniqueness to creation, so I would challenge you to reflect upon your personal hybrid of ideas.

When I was in art school, I recall having been assigned the creation of a sculpture of two animals combined into a new creature. Perhaps this was a perfect example of the Intelligent-Art Hybrid (IAH) concept which challenges clients to combine the left-logical and right-intuitive realms of the mind with an acceptance that the right and left brains are possibly different than we have envisioned them in the past.

I challenge you to find spiritual fulfillment within art, regardless of your religious beliefs or absence of religious beliefs. There is something spiritually uplifting about the act of creation both within the traditional fields of arts and in other areas of our lives including business leadership, teaching, mentoring, coaching, gardening and painting ceramics....Most recently, I was impressed by the book entitled "The Witch of Portobello" by Paulo Coehlo because the protagonist, Athena, found her spirituality in dance and calligraphy. Such acts were meditative for her as she learned more within the pauses between letters and movements (the negative spaces) than from within the positive spaces. What are the visions that arise when you are in the act of creation?

Take a look at authors such as Paulo Coehlo, Umberto Ecco, Ernest Hemingway and others to enhance artistic journeys in any medium. Fictive writers are sources of inspiration for all creators. I happen to receive inspiration from Greek, Norse and Celtic myths and would encourage creators to look at these ancient sources. I encourage you to take a look at literary plots, such as Shakespearean drama, and to look for the repetition of these plots in both contemporary literature and modern life.

The Italian Futurists, Expressionsists, Surrealists, Frida Kahlo (as a representative of female art), and the evolution of the arts from prehistoric times to modern days are observed to develop personal style, symbolism and individual purpose. There is much to be learned from one's preferences in art and from art that one does not understand; thus, it is beneficial to try to understand that which does not make sense.

No doubt, people will try to discourage you along your path, and but you should not give up no matter whether others understand your objective. It is only when you begin to have faith in yourself as a creator that you will succeed in your endeavors. In the end, only you can determine whether or not your work is worthwhile, so keep a positive outlook and set new trends!

There is published evidence that many great authors and artists did not achieve recognition during their lifetimes, but merely because those people around them did not recognize the real value of their work does not make their work any less worthwhile or important. Edgar Alan Poe and Vincent Van Gogh are only two examples of great artists whose work did not receive the acclaim it deserved during their lifetimes. Frida Kahlo had difficulty paying her bills because she did not earn enough money from her pursuits, but she is one of the greatest artists who ever lived and who worked in a medium that had previously been known as the male medium. Those creative individuals who profit spiritually and financially from creativity today are those who have faith in themselves.