Creativity is more than just imagination: It’s inseparably bound to intent and effort.

One adds the dominion of perseverance.

Jacqueline Carlin has each part of the equation; she’s a productive artist. Her imagination is visionary and specific, with a gifted aptitude for actualizing one-of-a-kind, three-dimensional art. Some of her work is as small as spray paint on dirt, some as big as a house. Or, in this case, both.

She built her exceptional home, Hilltop House, on a point higher than any hilltop around. She began by first marking the footprint of each section with her aerosol technique. From such humble beginnings came a house built like a fortress in every dimension, with an interior nonetheless celestially light and clear, gorgeously simple and utterly free of egoic expression. That may be the ultimate glory of this house, the likes of which Architectural Digest seeks.

“I don’t have any training but I know how a design should work so I’d talk to different engineers at different points,” she says. But Carlin can also relate the precise measurements, specs, and step-by-step process for every centimeter of the construction and landscape. Never mind that the completion was eight years ago – Carlin could write a textbook. But if you ask her the height of the wonderfully tall French doors, she says, “Oh, I don’t know, those are just bought.”

The style of the 2,650-square-foot house (3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, attached double garage) is considered Mediterranean villa. An unembellished form defines the exterior: smooth plaster with double barrel red tile roof, an attached outdoor fireplace near the front entry and a high archway perimeter plaster wall with double bull nose top. A gentle barrier.

Inside, there’s no easy title for the celestial calm – infinity wrapped in a safe embrace or the sense of how it could feel flowing above these high, pristine hills in a gauzy white ship of sails.

The living room (with fireplace), dining room and kitchen combine for an open-flow plan, each with windows and/or high French doors. Carlin built double bull nose corners at every turn, with a subtle graciousness for easy movement throughout. Rims of the Satillo tile curve into the grout and even ceiling beams whisper of smoothed edges.

They are 12-foot-long whitewashed beams placed in concert with the shape of the room below. The master bedroom is huge, its design Museum of Modern Art-worthy. It has wide octagonal walls, each wall with French doors, or fireplace, or arch door entry, among others. It also has a “way-the-heck-up there” octagon ceiling, a masterful concept.

Each of the eight ceiling beams descends from the pyramid point’s immense octagonal skylight. The beams extend downward to the top of each side of each wall. Carlin lined the wedges between each beam with lateral, flush timbers that, despite the height of the ceiling, suggest the security of unwavering shelter. From the precise point at the top of the pyramid hangs a ceiling fan made of cloth; again, subtle, and again amazing once noticed.

From inside or outside, one sees only layers of hills below the house, 10 deep to the east. To the west, cleavage between hills modestly reveals a bit of ocean six miles away; velvety, changing, but always with a thin line of white water, wrinkled string washed ashore.

Price: $1,749,0025535 Tierra Grande Road, Carmel Valley • Contact Glenn Alder, Sotheby’s International Real Estate, 622-4867.