Career & Business

Dealing with Rejection

By Sandra Indig

Sandra Indig, Blue Line, acrylic on paper, 23" x 30.

Every time you send off a portfolio of your work to a gallery, curator, grant program, slide registry or other such person or entity, you take the risk of being rejected and disappointed. Rejection can naturally lead to feelings of hurt and discouragement.

Looking at Creativity and Rejection

To begin with, the creative process is giving oneself permission, whether consciously or unconsciously, to access a state of mind which is free from judgment and criticism, and is fluid enough to allow connections between seemingly unrelated elements.

In sharp contrast to this, artists are generally expected to pursue rational goal-oriented art careers that include business activities such as sending off summary portfolios, filling out grant applications, holding studio visits, mounting exhibitions, etc. You should be aware that conflicts generated by career pursuits can become detrimental to your creative practice, particularly when you receive negative feedback.

	Sandra Indig, Traces of Memory, acrylic on paper, 24" x 17"

The Effects of Rejection

When rejected, you probably start to doubt your abilities and vision. You may even feel like your work is meaningless. Artists’ reactions to rejection can range from just a mild annoyance to intense feelings whereby the rejection seems to threaten an artist’s integrity as a human being to the point where her or his existence is being compromised. The emotional and physical effects that accompany rejection can include feelings of loss, abandonment, anxiety, depression, hostility, fatigue, withdrawal, sleep disturbances, and they may even be the source of physical problems as well.

Although artists are often subject to rejection on an ongoing basis, they continue to produce artwork throughout their entire lifetimes. Rejection is just a natural part of the process.

Separating You from Your Art

As an artist, you are fortunate to be involved in one of the few professions in which your work is so closely associated with communicating your inner vision. However, the effect of identifying too closely with your product can have dire consequences. Thus, it’s important to keep a clear separation (albeit a difficult one) between your creative work and your art career. You already know that whenever you send off a portfolio of your work to a venue you are consciously seeking its validation of your vision and abilities.

You also need to keep in mind that the reasons for rejection are never absolute truths. Decisions made by individuals such as arts professionals are always subject to external influences on various levels: personal, professional, and social. Like you, arts professionals have personal preferences for certain styles of artwork, media, and concepts, all of which can have a positive or negative affect on their perception of your work. Naturally, you may sometimes feel that their decisions are arbitrary and illogical. Please remember, though, that when your work is rejected it doesn’t mean they’re rejecting you as a person.

	Sandra Indig, Warrior, acrylic on canvas, 38" x 32"

Close Calls

Keep in mind whenever you’re rejected by form letter you probably never realize how close you actually were to being selected. You should never automatically assume that you were the first person out of 1,500 applicants to be eliminated during a panel process. After auditing (and even participating in) many juried panels, I have seen artists who were top contenders during the entire process get eliminated in the final voting round. I have also seen artists win grants who were not immediately supported at the start of the selection process.

You need to understand that the panel process is complex. Individual panelists sometimes have personal agendas that they wish to promote, and this can be a great source of friction between them. Sometimes individual panelists are even obliged to make selections from a group of artists they would not normally support.

Read more articles and view more work by Sandra Indig on her website at www.sindig.com

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