"Art at its core is the act of being yourself," said Cinnamon Cooney on her Art Sherpa Blog today . 

Gradually, over this last year and a half of my art explosion and self-study, tutorial seeking, materials using awakening, it has become more and more clear to me that I need art. I need to create - I need to play - I need to manifest whatever this is that is going on inside my heart/head/soul. 

The other thing that has become crystal clear is that the more I show and share what I am doing, the less afraid I feel about this wild ride I'm on. AND, when I do start to feel afraid, or frustrated, or penned in, I go to my artspace and create something - which often leads to some sharing online. Sometihng struck me as I looked at my Graduate Diploma peering out from behind the door of my studio, holding it's obligatory space on the wall but not really where I have to look at it much. I don't feel like that person anymore.... and, at a time when I'm not really sure who I am or why I am here, something quite amazing has been happening - I am creating myself with Art every single day. Through art I am teling myself who I am and why I am here, and I'm not really sure that the answer is "artist" mind you, although that is part of it. There is something bigger going on. The more I create, the more of me I see. The more I put my stuff out there, the more I put ME out there. 

In a way, I am a work in progress, and at the same time I am an old masterpiece being restored. 

Art is fixing me. 

Art is putting me back together. 

I'm beginning to see why I need art like a bird needs the sky.