If you are a serious, working artist you are constantly putting yourself and your work "out there". This, of course, means that you are opening the door for comments both good and bad about your passion - your art. Artists must develop a thick skin and realize that everyone has an opinion about most things and this does include your art.
The ability to handle the rejection of your work pertains not only to an individual's remarks, but to those letters every practicing artist has received after submitting their work to juried shows. Even though we promise ourselves we will be strong, that the carefully worded rejection letter will not bother us, knowing intellectually that everything is subjective and the declined piece may well be an award winner in the next show we submit it to . . . the letter still stings and feels like a condemnation of our entire body of work and very often our very being as an artist. Many times these letters even state the number of pieces submitted and the number accepted and often the number accepted is extremely low in comparison. (For example the last one I received stated " . . . over 1000 pieces submitted . . . 200 were selected.") Logically this should make one realize it is not about your art being "bad", but more about limited space, etc. But guess what - it still made me feel horrible. I bet many of those other artists did, as well.
I have been a professional artist for quite a while now and I know these things happen. Believe it or not, I am handling all of this better than I did a few years ago. I just have to keep reminding myself to keep things more on an even plane - eliminate the extreme lows and euphoric highs and realize it all evens out in the end. After all, I am creating art because I love it. That's what it's really all about any way. This other stuff is icing on the cake.
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