Rejection. As an artist, you’re not supposed to take it personally when you don’t get into a show, but it is so hard not to, when you’ve poured your heart and soul into a piece. You literally have given blood (so many cuts with mosaics!), sweat (breaking plates can be a full body workout…) and tears (why don’t pieces come out the way I envisioned in my head?) and then you don’t even get a personalized email explaining why your piece wasn’t accepted!
I’ve been trying to put myself out there more lately – applying to shows near and far (Old Town Alexandria; Annapolis, MD; Raleigh, NC; and Kokomo, IN). I carefully selected pieces, sometimes even created the pieces just for the call for entry, paid my entry fees (so many entry fees!) and then patiently waited. Only made it into one of those four. Two of these galleries at least wrote to tell me “we regret to inform you…” I haven’t received anything from the fourth, but my submission status now reads “not invited,” which I guess sounds nicer than “rejected,” but it means the same thing. (The photo above shows one of the pieces -- Soundwaves 1 – that I submitted.)
I found myself feeling low for awhile after that one, but fortunately, I’m curating a show for Del Ray Artisans in April and have too many things to do to get ready for that so that I don’t really have time to wallow in self-pity. For the show, I had this great idea to help myself and other artists clear out our workspaces of “unfinished” pieces, by sharing them with another artist who will turn them into “finished” ones. So rather than focus on these rejections, I’m moving on to the next item on my to-do list -- finishing pieces from three other artists! And since I’m the curator, I know this time I won’t feel the sting of a rejection!
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