2019: A Year of Aiming for Rejections
Rejected! Ouch…that is not a statement any of us are really comfortable receiving, but “more rejections” was one of my art business goals in 2019. Read on to discover why.
In late 2018, I read a blog post by writer, Kim Liao, that resonated with me. Liao shared about her admiration for a writer friend who seemed to have the “Midas touch”. She was consistently getting published and being awarded residencies. In a conversation, or better yet, a quest to uncover the “success secret”, Liao received this advice: “Collect rejections. Set rejection goals. I know someone who shoots for one hundred rejections in a year, because if you work that hard to get so many rejections, you’re sure to get a few acceptances, too.”
This statement altered Liao’s life and the attainable act of collecting rejections took a bit of the of the sting out of the ‘ego-bruising exercise’ of getting her work out into the world. At the time of the article, she had been rejected 43 times that year but had also received five acceptances.
Her story provided me with a perspective shift and a challenge that I could not resist making my own. So, I set
about to submit my work to juried shows and art festivals, solo gallery shows and more. Twenty-two times, I put my work and myself out there. Most of these required an application fee, so there was a financial cost as well. What happened?
REJECTED:
I got rejections…11 of them to be exact. (I’ll admit there was still a lil’ sting even though that was the goal!) One of those was for a major art festival that I really wanted in and although it started out as a maybe (I was put on a waiting list) I was ultimately rejected. Rejection build resilience and offers great learning opportunities if you learn to “fail, fail again, and fail better” as was so aptly summarized by Samuel Beckett.
ACCEPTED:
“Dear Sharon, We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected as an Accepted Artist for the 2020 Festival of the Arts, April 21st - 26th, in Oklahoma City…”
Yes I got rejections, but just as many times, a door was opened, and I got to share my work in a new venue and with new people. Being awarded a solo show for my “100 Faces Project” at the Paseo Art Space
in Oklahoma City, was a highlight of 2019. However, the “acceptance” letter I received in early November holds a great deal of significance for 2020. I was selected as one of 100 artists chosen to participate in the Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts happening April 21st-26th. I am over-the-moon excited for this huge opportunity for exposure and preparing for it is going to keep me very busy in these first few months of the year.
Exciting times!
Sharon
PS. As I was writing this today, I saw that I received my first rejection letter for 2020, and so we begin…1/100.
PSS. Here is a link to Liao’s influential blogpost: Why You Should Aim for 100 Rejections a Year