Rejection

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How to deal with rejection?

I entered three paintings for our local 3 Counties Open art exhibition, but yet again all of them have been rejected. I thought they had a good chance, but no, nothing. I’ve entered in the past and been successful on a few occasions. …maybe my idea of art is too different from anyone else?

I have not added photos if them I don’t want to remind myself…

It’s a hard thing to accept, I know its nothing in the middle of all the bad things happening in the world. But I feel a gut wrenching sadness…I’m clearly not good at this….

Thinking about it, really it is a personal choice by the judge’s. There is nothing in the entry form to give you a clue what they like, and in any case, I think art should be original not made for a criteria. I guess they didn’t fit in with the rest of the show. I don’t know if I will bother with the opening, I can be very self critical and I might end up getting upset.

So, I will do what I always do, carry on with my own ideas. Not get too despondent. Life carries on. I need to take a breath and relax, get over it and start over…

I try too hard

To make you see,

My art is mine, alone to me.

I know I am frustrated by rejection

But life’s like that,

I must temper my reaction.

My pain will be brief

No death here,

Just feeling bereft

Not shedding a tear.

I will carry on

I will go ahead,

My art is my own

I will not regret.

Xx

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14 thoughts on “Rejection”

  2. I had the same problem. You pay to enter and they don’t hang the painting but they keep your money. It’s a racket. The jurors think like interior decorators. They feel they have to make “groupings”. If your painting doesn’t go with anything else they can’t think of a way to display it. If I enter 3 paintings so they can make a grouping only one gets hung and it’s always either way up high, in a corner, in the hall, next to the bathroom, behind a sculpture, etc. If I enter one at a time 2/3 to 3/4 of them get rejected. They want conformity. The jurors give the prizes to their friends, their students, people who they owe a favor to, or people with connections they can use later. I gave up a couple years ago and now I’m not entering anymore. What artist needs that kind of frustration? I had to join art groups to get my paintings hung with the group and had to face some cattiness from the boss ladies at the nonprofits who don’t like me or my work. I gave up on trying to find any support in the art world, except on WordPress, where the artists seem supportive.

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    1. I think a lot of artists have the same experience. You don’t fit in with the “feel” of the exhibition …when the clue is in the name “open”. Not, “friends with” or “well known”. Anyway I’m trying not to be to disillusioned. .. I’ve got an exhibition coming up in a few weeks so they will go in that. ….and blowing a raspberry at selection processes!

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  3. I was speaking with a gallery owner at a party the other day. I was up for a debate about exactly this topic. I questioned artists that get into our National Gallery. Apparently not to do with the saleability of a persons work over their lifetime. You can have a sell out exhibition and even be famous in other countries but you need to play their game. This is apparently the criteria.
    1. Is the artist a qualified artist
    2. Is their artwork enduring
    What a load of guff. I did my undergrad in art. I’m not famous and have never won a competition but apparently I’ve got more chance of getting into the National Gallery than artists work that I admire just because they didn’t go to uni for that bit of paper.

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