Training at 4 years old

jrscatman wrote: ... Are you saying hard work does not differentiate champion from the rest of the contenders?

No. I'm saying that hard work alone won't make a champion. But no-one ever got to be champion without hard work.

There are lots and lots of factors, some of which we have no control over. For example, if you want to be an Olympic diving champion it would be a mistake to grow up in Baker Lake, Canada's only inland Arctic community;



or, if you want to be a female gymnast, it's difficult if you're a 2 metre endomorph



Of those things we do have control over, hard work seems to be the most significant. And don't be fooled about J-O's dedication: He was born in 1965 and was already playing for Stockholm Spårvägars GoIF (Sweden) by 1971, aged 6. He's still playing at age 49; I think that says something about commitment.

"Akiane's life began in an unusual way, with an underwater home birth in a shack on the edge of a cornfield.

Although during her first years the family experienced severe hardships, Akiane grew up in a nurturing home-schooling environment. Her mother was a Lithuanian immigrant teacher and her father a chef from Chicago. In their rural Illinois home the family had no friends, no relatives, no television or radio, and their life was quite simple: long walks in nature, open conversations, and hands on explorations of knowledge.

When Akiane was four years old, even though the family was indifferent to spirituality or religion, suddenly she started experiencing vivid impressions about invisible realms and a great desire to express them through art utilizing whatever medium was found on hand: candles, lipstick, fruits, vegetables, charcoal or pencils.

Though once in while she would share many details about the self-aware universes she was seeing, most of her spiritual experiences, however, she kept secret, so as not to overwhelm her parents. "It is not time yet for you to know what I see. When that time comes, then you will know."

Whether it was Akiane's vivid imagination or real experiences, her realistic drawings of mostly faces, undoubtedly impressed everybody, and during the first local art exhibitions people often had a hard time believing that the work could actually be created by such a young child.

Soon afterwards, Akiane plunged into the world of colors, and a few more years later into the world of poetry leaving her family and audiences puzzled.

Gradually the days became filled with thinking, painting and writing, and at the tender age of eight the self-taught prodigy completed her first five-foot long oil paintings mastering realism equal to that of a seasoned artist.

The media took immediate notice, and her unique story rapidly circled the nation. Oprah Winfrey was the first to discover this nine-year-old's gift, and once she shared it during her show, Akiane's fame took off. Soon every continent was reporting her breathtaking story.

Since then, she has been called a genius, a prodigy, a crystal child, an indigo, a messenger, a visionary, an ambassador, and the first true master of the 21st century. Completely unconcerned about all the labels or the accolades about her, Akiane, now seventeen, continues to express herself through art and poetry, inspiring and changing countless lives one person at a time.

Those who have gotten to know this young genius, find her joyful, gentle, dedicated, modest and unpretentious. The young painter seems to be completely focused on her work getting up at four in the morning, for many hours painting in her studio, detail after detail, layer after layer, month after month—sometimes spending as much as four months on a single masterpiece.

During her leisure Akiane loves writing her poetry and novels, composing on a piano, brushing up on four languages, fashion designing, sewing and playing with her four brothers. She will frolic with her golden retriever and a few close friends in the forest and even draw in the coloring books along with the youngsters, just to have fun. It seems that she can equally connect with all age groups, and lives who come in contact with Akiane are seldom the same: hundreds of children decide to follow in Akiane's footsteps and pursue self-education by following their true passion.

Akiane plans to continue publishing books, travel with her art and poetry around the world and help needy families with the funds from her gallery sales and auctions. "I see ordinary life in an extraordinary world, and I see extraordinary life in an ordinary world. Everything is One. We are all connected. If we experienced the present through eternity and eternity through the present, we would know true Love." she explains in her upcoming book, Eternity Is Not That Long.

Both the paintings and the poetry that accompany her images often are filled with riddles, symbols and codes. Her style appears to be unusually versatile and profoundly complex as if she is trying to reveal the deepest workings of the unknown.

Akiane seems to have an awareness of reality, seen or unseen, that penetrates deeper than that of the ordinary human. She chooses her subjects from vastly different epochs or realms and real life models from all over the world and from all the races. The images of her original masterpieces are finished to such an ultra-realistic level that it transcends her canvas and transports the viewer into the artist's world of experientially authentic reality.

Many of the world's leaders, royalty, scientists, media, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and celebrities have been acquainted with her art or are collecting it.

Her art exhibitions have been held in museums, galleries, embassies, private mansions, universities, institutes, monasteries, churches, hotels and corporations across the world.

To see Akiane's originals is such a rare and life changing experience that hundreds of art collectors and enthusiasts are flowing into her studio gallery inspired by her genius. Usual solo art exhibitions and book signings attract thousands waiting in line for hours to meet "the wunderkind".

Her originals are sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars, many are valued at millions, making Akiane the most successful living visual art child prodigy in the world. Tens of thousands of dollars have been raised through auctions and art exhibits and donated to needy people throughout the globe.

Included into the group of the richest kids-entrepreneurs of America Akiane has been touring around the United States along with other top entrepreneurs teaching millions of people about the secrets to success and happiness.

The interest in Akiane has reached unprecedented proportions, with over 200 published art works, 800 literary creations, two published best selling books, regular appearances on prime-time TV and radio, such as Oprah Winfrey Show, World News Tonight, Good Morning America, Glen Beck Show/CNN, The View, Fox News, Montel Williams Show, Late Late Show, Lou Dobbs Show/CNN, Hour of Power, and numerous others, top media coverage in Brazil, Japan, Korea, Norway, Lithuania, Ireland, England, Canada, Middle East, and China, with an induction into the Kids Hall Of Fame, and World Council for Gifted and Talented Children, almost 300 million hits a year on www.akiane.com, the main website for Akiane gallery and over 100,000 daily hits on internet searches of the world wide web.

Wise far beyond her years, Akiane, however, is indifferent to either praise or criticism. She cannot help but paint and write."I was born to paint," she says.

What also made Akiane so unique and renowned is that she is able to portray the invisible and visible realms with such emotion and realism. Most of her priceless masterpieces carry a mysterious result: she often uses an unidentified golden dust substance that once 'materialized' in front of her eyes. Her painting "Innocence" is a hologram: from the front the lady appearing young and serene, but from the side she is all in tears and wrinkles.

Akiane believes that people in the future will be able to study her originals with special microscopes revealing quantum relationships of the deepest colors and stories in her works. She has even been able to document her own masterpieces from beginning to end on film for educational purposes, and remains always open for many scientific and artistic collaborations.

The fearless artist is not afraid to jump into the most enigmatic and thought provoking visual and literary debates engaging those that seek to explore uncharted territories. People from all beliefs and backgrounds seem to respond to her vision of love and unity like to no one else's."






Edited by roundrobin - 11/25/2014 at 4:19am

Wow...her work is stunning. Thanks for sharing.