Rejection. It's only the beginning.

Last Thursday I had my weekly open hour call in the EVOLVE program. This is a one-hour group call for artists to ask their burning questions of the week or get feedback on something they are working on. It's a new addition to the program to help Artists when they get stuck or bogged down in something. Momentum is the name of the game people.

So many great questions and discussions have been generated in this cohort of EVOLVE Artists. I am perpetually surprised at the variety and how complex they tend to be.

I have concluded that there is rarely one simple answer to any question in the arts.

However, one of the questions last Thursday was an easy one to answer.

‘If my work is rejected from an art prize, should I enter that work in another art prize?’

I threw the question out to the group, and everyone put their hand up for a resounding yes.

Yes. One person or panel assessing your application and saying no thank you does not mean lights out for your work. It does not change the integrity of your artwork. It does not alter it in any way. Does it?

I am a believer that good work* will always find its place. It may take a while and its destination may be unexpected, but it will find its home.

Two stories to make my point.
 
Story 1: My own story
There was a work I made a few years back that was outside the norm for me, I thought it had a little je ne sais quoi. It was one of those borderline works, you know the kind. Beautiful? Perhaps. Ugly? A little. I had an art prize on my mind for a few years and thought this is it, this is my shot.

Nope.

Rejection.**

Some time passed, and I was invited to put a small collection of works in a themed exhibition at a council run gallery. One work sold, but not the ugly / beautiful one. Was this rejection again?

Some more time passed, (ah time, my good old friend) and I was invited to be in an exhibition with my gallery in Melbourne. The Ugliful work (just made up that word, like it?) was included. A philanthropist friend of the gallery visited the exhibition and liaised with the National Gallery of Victoria to purchase Ugliful and two other works for their collection.
 
I admit this is a highly unusual ending to a story, but it illustrates that one rejection or even multiple rejections may be making room for something else, something even better. We don't know.
 
 
Story 2: An EVOLVE Artists’ story
I received an email from one of the artists in EVOLVE with some exciting news. Not only had her work been accepted into an art prize, but a stunning image of the work had been chosen to don some monumental banners across the suburbs of Sydney. Epic. This work in question had been rejected from a different art prize a few months earlier.
 
I hope the moral of these stories is obvious.
If we let one rejection, or even many rejections, taint a good work, we may be missing out. Others may be missing out too.
 
If you know there is something special there, you know the work is good, try again. Try again with fresh eyes. Go over your submission. Would the work benefit from a new image? Is your statement hitting the mark? Have you titled your work appropriately? There are so many small elements to consider. Getting a fresh perspective from someone familiar with the process can help. 
 
I don’t know about you, but I would really like to get to the place, where an unwanted outcome or an unpleasant comment may sting, but there is a deep knowing that good work cannot be taken down by others. We can only do that ourselves.
 
It’s a journey.

Amy x



* Good work. This is a thorny topic to discuss. What is good work? What makes a work 'good'?  The elephant in the room... is that my work, your work, may be rejected because it is just not good work. It is not good enough yet. We must figure out why. 

** Rejection is a problematic word in the arts, actually in life. 
We should be very careful how we use it.