Artists, rejection and the fine art of turning ‘no’ into Picasso!!

I don’t know if you’ve ever been rejected as an artist, but, it stings, it hurts and it’s a bit demoralising!

This week I had my first rejection.

I put a piece of art forward for a juried competition. What this means is that you send in a digital image of your artwork. It is then judged by a jury of art experts. They decide whether it goes through to be judged again for the competition prizes (usually by a different set of judges).

I was quite hopeful, as I’d had some really good feedback on the piece. Probably I got my hopes up too high, too early..

Yesterday, I received an email telling me that I wasn’t successful. There were over 179 entries, and only 45 went through for judging in the competition.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to tell you how unfair it was, how unlucky I was or any of that stuff! It is what it is!

But, that doesn’t stop me from feeling disappointed and a little depressed. My confidence is knocked about a bit. I think those reactions are quite reasonable … as one of my previous bosses used to say ‘it’s ok if you go down to pity city … it’s only a problem if you decide to stay’. So, I’m allowing myself a weekend away in pity city – I have no desire to stay!

How do I get rejected, let me count the ways!

Just kidding, but, as an artist, how can we experience rejection? Here’s a few thoughts …

  • Juried competitions or exhibitions
  • Exhibitions where you don’t sell anything
  • No-one showing interest in your art on social media
  • People actively disliking your art on social media
  • Rejections from galleries

and so on …. I’m guessing I could go on forever!

That’s starting to get depressing isn’t it lol?

So, the big question is …. how on earth do you deal with it? How do you stop yourself from spiralling out of control? How do you prevent your inner critic from taking over and undoing all the good work you had achieved in gaining confidence?

Here’s my 5 tips for getting over a rejection (tried and tested this week lol)

  1. Find a confidant, mentor, a really good friend or the cat, and let it all out – don’t hold back, don’t think about what they will think, just say everything you want to say about it. The worst thing you can do is hold the feelings inside and let them fester. Cry if you need to, sob hysterically if you really think that will help! I promise, it will make you feel better. BUT (yes, there’s a caveat!) don’t go telling every Tom, Dick and Harry about it. You will just be prolonging the agony, and probably boring everyone to death. Talk it out with someone, and then let it go …
  2. Give yourself some kind of a treat – this probably sounds a bit like rewarding failure. However, this is NOT, I repeat, NOT, a failure. You will be celebrating your courage in putting yourself out there. There are millions of people all around the world doing art, but only a very, very small percentage of them are prepared to open themselves up to rejection. You need to celebrate you. You did it! You may not have got the result you wanted, but you took the hardest step, and put something forward. Be proud of yourself AND celebrate it! Take yourself on a date, get yourself something you’ve been wanting for a while, go out to dinner … the possibilities are endless.
  3. Take yourself back to your studio or creative space and create – Get straight back on the horse. Don’t let your inner critic, your feelings of rejection and your frustration stop you from creating. The world needs what you have inside of you. I heard on a youtube training today that the world is looking for more transcendent experiences. As creatives, this is what we do, we create those experiences – the world needs this now more than ever, and it’s our role to work towards creating those. Look for the higher purpose in what you do, and think of those who will be missing out if you stop creating. Someone is out there for every piece that you create, but you have to let them find you! Even if one person rejects your work, there will be another who loves it!
  4. Look for the learnings from the experience – in my case, I will be going along to the exhibition later in the year. I want to see the types of work that got through. I think simply looking at them will give me some ideas – were they framed, were certain subject matters more prevalent, what kind of styles and colour palettes were there. By no means will this change the way I paint – it’s not about conforming. It’s about looking for the subtle details that might help. I can’t, after all, appeal to everyone – it’s just not possible. The art experts who judged the works will have their own preferences and I can’t change that. Maybe I will see that I need to become more proficient in my mediums. I don’t know what I’ll find, but I’m sure to find something. I’ll also be taking someone else along to talk about it with. They just may notice things that I don’t. I’m also learning, simply by writing this, about how I’ve reacted and possibly how I should approach things in the future.
  5. Every rejection takes you one step closer to success – I recently read this somewhere, but for the life of me, I can’t remember where. However, it’s very, very true. If you remember that this is part of the process of your art practice and business, then it becomes easier. It’s kind of like Thomas Edison saying ‘I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work’, or ‘the most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time’. We can sit back and think that we aren’t going to succeed because someone didn’t like our work. Or we can get back to it and keep going and find all the ways that we can to get our work to the people that are going to love it.

I’ll probably come back later and wonder why I didn’t say something else!

Anyway, this is almost like I’ve given myself a pep talk, and I feel heaps better. Just a couple of sentences for your inner critic or any outer critics:

  • YOU ARE NOT A FAILURE
  • THE WORLD NEEDS YOUR ART
  • YOU NEED YOUR ART
  • DON’T GIVE UP

Oh yeah, that’s for me too! haha

In case you’re wondering which piece I put in for the competition, here’s a pic below!

I will come back to this after I go and see the competition later in the year. I think it’s in August, so expect an update then!

If you’ve got any tips on dealing with rejection as an artist, please put them in the comments below. I’m sure that we all, as artists will appreciate more thoughts. We’re all different, so, we all deal with these things in different ways!

Want to know more about me?

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Take a look at some of my other blogs.

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