Jan Kobe Professionally trained as an artitst in the field of picture illustration at the University of Kansas, I earned a BFA. As an artist with 200 other designers, I was honored to be on staff with a greeting card company. At the height of my creative energy at age 27, I had an onset of mental illness. I worked on my recovery and have been on staff at a community behavioral health center as a member of a team that creates an arts program for individuals with mental illness. I believe that art has given me hope and that paintings come from within a person as strengths and talent. My belief is that artists are visionaries. From personal experience, I know that recovery from mental illness is possible and hope that by viewing art, the stigma of mental illness can be eliminated and a better understanding of mental illness achieved.