Educators from Reggio Emilia encourage educators to see children as competent and strong. They persuade educators to acknowledge the children's use of the visual arts as a "language," especially during project work. Inspired by the philosophy from Reggio Emilia, the author initiated a 10-week ethnographic study of young children in a Reggio-inspired preschool classroom. Through this study, she gained an understanding of why these children spontaneously created artworks and gained answers to her question: What are young children's purposes for creating in the visual arts? A further review of literature revealed that her findings connected with Bendtro and Brokenleg's (2001) model called the "Circle of Courage." This connection enhanced the author's understanding of the children's purposes for generating visual artworks. This article provides an overview of project work and the Circle of Courage framework and an explanation of how the children's purposes, discovered during this study, fit this framework. (Contains 5 figures and 1 table.)