The mental power of image-making is one thing, or aspect;
and it should appropriately be called Imagination. The
perception of the image, the grasp of its implications, and
the control, which are necessary to a successful expression,
may vary in vividness and strength: but this is a difference of
degree in Imagination, not a difference in kind. The achievement
of the expression, which gives (or seems to give) “the inner
consistency of reality,” is indeed another thing, or aspect,
needing another name: Art, the operative link between Imagination
and the final result, Sub-creation.
— J.R.R. Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories
Subcreation.net