Thursday, June 4, 2009

Dealing with Disappointment

Under painting

"On the Side (Lori's Diner)"
9 x 12, pastel


Here's how I handled some disappointing news yesterday: I went out to the studio and painted.

The news? That two of my paintings were not accepted into a show. Ouch. That hurt my ego a bit.

I suppose that there are stages of handling rejection just like any other thing. Elisabeth Kubler Ross introduced her famed stages of grief in 1969.

They are:
  1. denial
  2. anger
  3. bargaining
  4. depression
  5. acceptance
I think that my stages were more like this:
  1. surprise
  2. upset
  3. talk to a few friends
  4. make some disparaging comments about the juror
  5. turn the music up louder and paint something new
I think that I could avoid the risk of ever having work rejected again by never entering another show or contest. But, that would be an overreaction. Foolish or not, I think I'll just go on putting my work out there and seeing what happens.

In the meantime, I think I'll listen to some more LOUD music. Hmm. Queen or Bartok?


3 comments:

Jackie McIntyre said...

Thanks for the tip on linking, I have done it before in my blog and it has worked, but for the life of me I couldn't get it to work this time. I was with Wendy at the Iris Garden and was also in Kitty's class at the same time as Wendy.

Sorry your work didn't get accepted in a show, sometimes it works out for a reason and wasn't meant to be, but never give up, just keep trying...............

Celeste Bergin said...

The more we are rejected...the stronger we will become. It is like having strong roots as a young tree...we bend but we don't break! Artists are young trees with strong roots.

Katherine van Schoonhoven said...

Thanks for your comments, Jackie and Celeste!

It's such a weird balance. I want the feedback -- and it's feedback of some kind or another that tells me that my work is not accepted in a show. But, I don't want to give others too much power in saying what is good or not good about my work.

But, I will keep putting my work out there. We'll just have to wait and see what happens!