Rejection

Got rejected by a show in Cincinnati today.  Not really sure why but I guess all things considered it really doesn’t matter all that much.  Why are artists rejected?  Well I think the answer usually lies with the jury.  There was something that just didn’t resonate with them about the artists work.  Or perhaps it is something else.  It’s kinda hard to know if feedback or criticism is unavailable.

Anytime you are rejected it makes you wonder why.  Why was my work not good enough, what was it that didn’t resonate.  All the voices in my head say, fuck my work is shit, I’m shit, fuck I should just quit.  But if you are worth your salt the voices in your head say…  Whatever… I know who I am, my work is excellent, the problem lies with the jury, which is perhaps ego bullshit as well…

Unless you are lucky enough to receive some criticism regarding your work, you will be in the dark as to why your work was rejected.  I’m sure many artists reject criticism of their work.  It is difficult to hear criticism because it nearly always brings up feelings of inadequacy, my work isn’t good enough so I must not be good enough.  I have always felt that great artists take any criticism given and use it as energy to make their work better.  Maybe we just have a chip on our shoulder and feel like fuck them, I promise I’m gonna show them! I am great, my work is great, they’re just clueless.  Just cause this jury didn’t like it doesn’t mean shit…  Or maybe we let ego evaporate and look at what criticism is given with open eyes and actually look at our work from another persons perspective and figure out how to use it for bettering of our work.

In the case of this particular rejection of my work I was not fortunate enough to receive any critique, so that just leaves me to ponder why, why, why.  I am very confident in who I am as an artist and confident in the uniqueness and strength of my work, so I just sit here with the voices in my head and wonder is there a personal reason I was rejected?  I will likely never know unless someone has the balls to tell me.  Trust me when I say I respect people who have the balls to confront me on a personal level, I can’t improve, grow and mature if I don’t have truth to work with.  This particular show I had mixed feelings about from the start so as far as I am concerned rejection was probably the correct outcome, I just wish I had a little criticism to help me improve.

In the end I guess maybe it wasn’t my best work.  Over the past month I have made some really great work (in my opinion… here is a grain of salt for you) and when I sent the submission to the show in Cinci it was recent work but not as strong as the art I have made since that submission.  All things considered it really doesn’t matter a great deal.  My dog, my cat, and I think possibly my wife and children love me and anything else is just a bonus.

Maybe I will try again next year, but that is 365 long days away so…

Here is what was submitted.  Jury it and give me a critique…