Real or Illusion?

Real is a strange word with varied significance to various people. What can you say is real? Real could mean actual, could mean genuine, could mean factual, could mean not imagined. These meanings are questionable to me.

I’m not keen on the idea that real is something perceived by the senses, though that is the measure by which real is most commonly understood. Real, understood in that way, is not big enough for me. After all, mirages exist that we seem to be seeing, I hear sounds that no one else hears, and phantom limbs may be felt though not seen.
Is a work of art real in the mind of the creator? She may be imagining it now, but is it less real now in the imagination of the artist than when the canvas is ready to be framed?

Since I believe that all that is created (made real) begins as thought-feeling, factual real, historical real, and empirically perceived real are not enough to account for creation. I find those criteria unreliable anyway.
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What is most real for me is that which I see with eyes of faith, that which my whole being says is real. That real is found within me and not outside of me. The outside stuff must be verified by a well-functioning inner me. If it cannot be verified, it is illusion. I live in a world of illusion. I exist in a world that is real.