Dealing with Rejection

I’ve been wanting to start a blog for quite a while now, and have never gotten around to it… that is, until I was faced with a major blow from a recent rejection regarding an application to a local art festival I applied too. It’s been a dream of mine to participate as an artist and not as a consumer. It’s a wonderful event that takes place all summer where local business and artists join together to sell their creations and products. It feels like something out of a Hallmark movie with it’s cozy mountain town ambiance that attracts people from all over the region. I knew it was a big deal to apply and an even bigger deal to be accepted, but wow, did I fully believe I had a chance. Opening that email was gut-wrenching. I sat there staring at my email not wanting to believe it. But, it’s true. It’s just not my time.

It’s important to embrace how we’re feeling in these moments; so I wallowed in my own self-pity for the rest of the night. It’s now the next day and I refuse to be stopped. I know my art is perfect for this event and it’s buyers. I’m proud of what I’ve created and look forward to the day my time will come to participate. I fully believe that when you work hard good things come to you. The power of manifesting your dreams is something I take quite seriously, and I hope you do too. I wanted to share this with any fellow artists out there facing rejection. It seriously sucks and can play tricks on our minds, making us second guess ourselves as artists and what we create. But, I’d like to challenge you (and me) to feel the way you need to feel in these moments, but then to move on. Think about how you can learn from it. How you can do something different to get the outcome you want. I’m currently doing this right now. I’m writing about it and making a plan for my next steps. So, what do I do? I continue to paint and create art that speaks from my soul. I create prints of my artwork. I finally get my shop up and running and take note of what people like and purchase the most. I create stock for future markets that I hope to participate in. I simply keep moving forward. It’s too easy to get caught up in the setbacks, and when you’re an artist or someone creative, we seriously can’t get stuck there.