Accepting Rejection

Once upon a time I wrote occasional articles for the Finlandia University newspaper "The Roar". I was cleaning files off my mp3 player/flash drive and came across one of them. Since The Roar isn't widely distributed, I thought I'd stick a copy of the article here. I wrote this one sometime in the Spring of 2009.

Finlandia University International School of Art and Design annually sponsors the Student Juried Art Exhibit in which students may submit artwork they have done within the past year to be judged and accepted into the show. I have heard a lot of disheartened students talk about the sting of being rejected; I myself had four pieces of work rejected from this year’s show.

Perhaps being rejected from the Student Juried Show is the first brush with this new reality many students will encounter. Rejection has become one of the nasty words in our culture today, particularly when used in relation to children. In little league, everyone gets a trophy just for trying to play the game.  It sweetens the sting of defeat, but it also bitters the taste of victory.  These trappings of a perfect world begin to wear away as we get older.  The losing team at the Super Bowl does not also get rings; the loser of the Presidential race does not also get a “thanks for playing” term as president. Being allowed to lose has become a mark of adulthood.

Rejection itself has long been a part of the art world, and still is. There are many juried exhibits beyond the one Finlandia sponsors, many of which students are encouraged to submit their work to. Opinion columnist makes their trade by writing about art and whether they think it is good or not. Van Gogh never sold a piece while he was alive, although now they are traded for thousands of dollars. Almost every time a new art movement has arisen, it has been rejected and jeered by critiques.

Through rejection and harsh critiques I feel that art becomes stronger. If an idea or mentality came onto the scene unchallenged it would be weak and soon forgotten, but as artist and philosophers have to articulate a defense for it, it gains in strength and power.  It is the battles we fight and win that we remember and are most proud of.  That is why I came to art school at Finlandia, not to learn to make art that everyone likes, but to fight for the art that I like.

Just because my work has been rejected by this years panel of judges does not make me a bad artist, it does not mean I have failed or that all my work this year has gone to waste. It means that this year, three people happened to be judging the work who do not like my style or ideas. Others have complimented me on my work, in class when we had group critique, and outside of class by my peers and professors. I myself am proud of what I have made. I worked hard on them and am pleased with the results; it just so happened that three other people did not feel the same way.

So I will take my rejection and wear it with pride. I have been given an opportunity to defend my ideas, and I am no longer a child who needs a consolation prize.  I have an opportunity to prove my critiques wrong (hopefully before I die, like Van Gogh).  Yes, it taste bitter now, but all the sweeter it will make my victory when it comes.

As an update, all of my rejected work has been purchased. Getting into shows are nice, getting told people like your work through the language of commerce makes you feel like a real artist.