How to Bounce Back From Rejection as an Artist

If you never share your art with others, then you can’t get rejected, right? Problem solved.

But if you keep your art hidden away for fear of rejection from others, are you actually just rejecting yourself in advance, so no one else can?

Sharing my art was a huge deal. It still is.

It’s like sharing a piece of you, exposing yourself to the world — not like that.

Some rejections that still make me cringe to this day:

• I bravely shared a photo of some earrings I’d made on Instagram and someone said it was “not their type of thing”. Cue, existential crisis.
• I pushed myself to share my work with a local art gallery and ask for their consideration to represent me. They said they weren’t accepting new artists at this time. Later that month they shared a new artist they’d signed in their newsletter. Hint taken.
• I discovered zines and fell in love! Made my first zine and was so excited I shared it with colleagues at my corporate job in marketing at the time. They didn’t get it, didn’t share my enthusiasm and were so uninterested I took it to mean I sucked. It took a while to make more zines after that, as my passion fizzled like a dying fuse.

But like someone wise once said — nothing bad can happen to an artist, because it’s all just fuel to make art from!

Here are some of rejection lessons that I hope help pick you back up:

1. Don’t let other people’s validation be the only reason you make art

Sure, we all want our art to be appreciated and loved. We want to be valued for our expression. We want to get paid, damn it.

But for me, I’d made being an artist such a huge part of my identity, that when I shared my art, I was really asking “Do you value me?”.

And when the viewer of said art simply shrugs and moves away, or glances at your drawing while they’re on the phone to someone more important, it cuts deep.

2. Someone not liking your work does not mean it’s not good, or that you’re not good

It simply means they are not your audience.

You can be the juiciest, sweetest peach in the whole world, but there’s always someone who just doesn’t like peaches.

I mean, who doesn’t like peaches?! Apparently some people don’t. I know, I don’t understand it either, but the point is your art is not for them.

Your art is not for everyone. It’s for those who it resonates with, and for those people — it means so much. Focus on creating and sharing with them.

3. Go through the motions.

Feel the feelings. It’s yucky, I know. You feel like a piece of shit. Nothing you do is any good, you’ll never make it in this cruel world, etc, etc.

It sounds like I have little empathy. But I do. I’ve been through rejection so much that I recognise it as a cycle. When you’re high, you’re high, when you’re low, you’re low.

My cycle starts with inspiration and hope, rises to excitement, pride, and joy! Then plummets into doubt, fear and eventually despair. Sounds like fun, right?

But nothing is permanent, and everything is temporary. So allow yourself to wallow and cry and rip up old work.

Write about it, make angry art with lots of red. Just get it out of you. Then, breathe. You’re now moving towards the next stage of the cycle again — Hope.

4. Rejection is redirection.

Sigh, this one sounds so cliché. But it’s true.

The best thing about getting rejected was that it forced me back to the drawing board (after going through step 3…)

I had a chance to look at my previous work and reflect; Do I like this piece? Is it a true expression of me? Is this where I want to be heading?

If not, I would look to try new things, seek out new inspiration, dig deeper to express a more authentic part of myself.

And if I was still proud of the work I’d done, and it was a true reflection of what I wanted to express — then I’d find myself back at steps 1 and 2….

If you’ve been rejected, congratulations!

You did it. You put your work out into the world.

Now, go make, write, express that rejection in some creative way.

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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