Not Selected for Open Exhibition

This week brought one of those emails that every artist gets used to receiving, but never quite gets used to reading.

I wasn’t selected for the Haworth Open Exhibition.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed. Of course I am. Whenever you submit a piece of work, there’s a small part of you that imagines it being selected — seeing it hanging in the exhibition, wondering how it might sit alongside the other work, and feeling that little sense of recognition that comes with being chosen.

And then comes the email saying no.

It’s easy, in that moment, to question the work. To wonder whether I should have chosen a different piece, whether it wasn’t good enough, or whether I’m somehow moving in the wrong direction.

But an open exhibition is, ultimately, one selection from a huge amount of work. The selectors have their own criteria, their own conversations and their own vision for the exhibition. Not being selected doesn’t suddenly make the work less meaningful, or undo the reasons I made it.

That’s something I’m trying to remind myself of.

Being an artist involves putting work into the world without knowing how it will be received. Sometimes it connects with people. Sometimes it gets selected. Sometimes it gets passed over. And sometimes the work finds its place somewhere completely unexpected.

So, yes, I’m disappointed. But I’m also still making.

The studio hasn’t changed. The work is still there. The ideas are still there. And there are still plenty of things I want to explore.

Perhaps that’s the more important part of this week: learning not to let one decision become a judgement on the whole journey.

I have another open exhibition that I’ll be applying to in a few weeks, so there’s already another opportunity on the horizon. I’ll choose a piece, press submit, and see what happens.

For now, I’m taking the disappointment, accepting it, and getting back to work.

Onwards