So I was down with a cold this weekend and it gave me some time to peruse the rabbit hole they call Pinterest. Of course, I ended up looking at all the amazing art quilts that are collected there.  With each new board, it just seemed like the quilts got more and more gorgeous . So much talent.  So much creativity.  My gosh how can a girl compete??  Why do I even bother trying to make art quilts when I'll never be able to be that good?

And I realized  that's the myth my inner critic is trying to sell me.

The reality is that those artists are just people like I'm a person.  They started with the same basic building blocks that I have ....a brain and two hands.   I remember talking about these same fears with my teacher Jeannette DeNicolis Meyer.  She said to me, and I paraphrase,  what I needed to remember is that the finish pieces I see online are the artists best works.  What we don't see are all the failed attempts, the unfinished projects,  and unsuccessful starts.  Those don't get paraded on Pinterest.  When we're working in our studios though we can't edit out all the failures and just see the successes.  We also can't edit out our critical eye which seems to pick out all the bad things and not the good.

So busting the Myth of self doubt  are the Facts.

Fact.....Behind every great piece is a bunch of failures.

Fact....Behind every great piece are a lot of hours, sweat and tears.

Fact...Behind every great piece is all the experience  of the artist

Fact...Behind every great piece is the artist who only sees the flaws


So what's the morale???  
 That Theodore Roosevelt was right.  Comparison is the Thief of Joy. 

Its not a bad thing to enjoy the work of your peers and revel in its beauty.  But do not let it steal your joy.  Your work, no matter where you are in your creative journey is uniquely and wonderfully you.  (For my Christian friends - Psalm 139:14).  And that's good enough for Pinterest...and Facebook.