‘It all works out in the end, you just got to deal with the rejection every now and again’ This is something I have had to tell myself several times. Nobody likes rejection but you have to put yourself out there otherwise you will think about the ‘what if…’ With such easy access to what people are doing now through social media it’s easy to look through someone’s Instagram or Facebook page and think that other people are doing better but you have to remember it’s only the highlight reel; not everybody talks about the not so great stuff. I’m guilty of that too because if something goes well for me I want to shout about it because I feel good and there’s nothing wrong with that. There has been several times when I’ve said to myself or my friends: ‘I’m a rubbish artist’ ‘Nobody would want to buy this’ ‘Why am I wasting my time?’ ‘Maybe I should focus on having a ‘proper’ job’ I haven’t discussed these feelings on my creative social media account or about any of the rejections I have had as creative practioner. There have been a few I have experienced but not many people generally talk about it. I submitted photos and an artist statement to apply for an exhibition where a group of people rejected the whole proposal, no explanation of why and it hit me hard. I know several people on that judging panel and felt embarrassed. I had worked towards this for nearly a whole year and without the reason of why it wasn’t good enough I felt I couldn’t improve or progress, I wasn’t sure what to do other than cycle through those negative thoughts and feel stupid for putting all my eggs in one basket.. However later on I submitted two of the paintings for shows at Tate Modern London and Tate St Ives and they were successful! I had some amazing feedback, one sold at the private view and the other one sold the week it was on display. If I had let those negative feelings consume my thoughts I probably wouldn’t have tried to get in the Tate Gallery as that is a big step up from a small town independant venue. Only a couple of months after that I submitted a painting for an exhibition which wasn’t accepted. I felt a bit low but I did better to reason with myself; I had submitted one large painting rather than a couple of smaller ones where the gallery may have been able to squeeze one out of the two in, I took a risk which was better than not trying at all and wondering whether it would have been accepted. I sat at the bus stop with my large painting wrapped in a bin liner (not very professional but the reality is that I don’t have the funds for archival wrapping and a courier to take it for me). As I walked through the door feeling thankful that it had stopped raining long enough for me to get the painting home, my phone picked up the Wi-Fi and I received a message; a commission request! I went through quite a roller-coaster of emotions that day! I found a book at work in our Wellbeing box (so grateful for this) which really helped me and I recommend reading if you can get hold of it. The book is called Ways of Being by James Cahill, Advice for Artists by Artists and covers the early days being a student, getting their first shows, becoming successful, inspiration and lots more through short artist quotes. I do recall a few quotes that helped me and reminded me to just keep going with my art no matter what is going on in life and how busy I am, just do something creative every day. For me that can be just a quick sketch, discovering a new artist and making a note to look up more about them, supporting another artist by buying a print or book, visiting an exhibition, discovering images on Pinterest that sparks a new project…anything to just keep going. It helps to remember that:
If you need some more positivity, inspiration and reasons to keep on with your creative practice visit my Creative Help & Inspiration Pinterest board, save them to your phone, laptop, tablet or pin them to your own boards!
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