If a rejection is particularly harsh or comes to an artist at an especially vulnerable time, it can have the tragic effect of causing an artist to have serious doubts about their own talents and worth. Worse still, it can cause some artists to stop creating altogether.

So how does an artist go about boldly creating and expressing themselves when rejection is sure to be a part of their lives?

You Are Not Your Art

Ultimately, the ability to handle the rejection of your art without feeling as though it’s a rejection of you as a person comes from a mental separation of yourself and the work you create. This is a difficult thing to do. 

There must be a mental separation that causes you to understand that through your art is an intimate expression of yourself, it is not your actual self. You are an entity that exists outside of your art, and as such, can remain unaffected by the judgments others have about your creations.

Creating this separation can take some time and effort, but there are a few things that can help you get there:

Understand the Relationship to Your Audience

Your audience is not the final authority on the quality of your art. They can express whether your work inspired, amused, moved, or entertained them, but their subjective opinions have no ultimate meaning when it comes to the value of your work. Don’t allow their words to take up real estate in your mind and plant seeds of doubt.

Practice the Power of “Yet”

Practice having a growth mindset. A growth mindset allows space to exist between success and failure in a way that encourages further improvement. An example of a growth mindset is practicing utilizing the power of “yet.”

For instance, instead of feeling devastated by a setback, you can reframe obstacles by saying, “I have not found the right audience for my art yet.” “I have not reached my career goals as an artist yet.” “My work is not in a gallery yet.”

Having this point of view allows you to be encouraged and try again because you understand that when one (or many) doors close, it is not the end; the correct door just hasn’t opened yet.

Remind Yourself Why You Created the Work

As an artist, it is important to acknowledge to yourself that there are some people who simply will not understand or even like your work. What they perceive as “good” or “bad” should not cast a shadow on what you know to be the truth in your art.

If you find yourself starting to cave to the opinions of others and doubting the quality of your work, remind yourself why you created the work in the first place.

Do you feel you accurately and authentically captured the elements of truth you were aiming to convey in the work? If so, then your piece is a success, no matter how others may feel about it.

Know Your Market

If you find that you are consistently being rejected from professional opportunities, it may be time to change your approach. Here are a few things you may need to re-evaluate:

1.  Research the Market – The words “marketable” and “art” can sometimes feel like absolute contradictions to the artist, but it’s extremely important to know your market if you are trying to sell. It’s just as important to understand that creating art for the market is not selling out. You can create and express as authentically and truthfully as you are able while still being intentional about the marketability of your work.

Study the market and challenge yourself to see how uniquely you can express your vision while also being mindful of the market you are targeting. 

2.    Refine Your Pitch – Artists can really struggle with talking about their own art. However, learning to pitch yourself is an essential skill for your career. If you find you’re not getting any responses, or the responses you are receiving are mostly negative, take a look at your pitch and see if that’s where the issue lies.

Are you too aggressive? Are you too informal? Are you scattered and unclear? Are you accurately representing your work? Are you making the pitch all about yourself and not discussing how your work can further the goals of the gallery/collector/curator?

A well-crafted pitch can work wonders for you, so take the time to get it right.

3.    Adjust Your Approach – It is good to persevere when something you try isn’t working. However, persevering does not mean trying the exact same thing over and over again. Instead, persistence should include constantly testing new ideas and creatively approaching obstacles until you find the path that works for you.

Have you been trying to get your work into galleries without success? Pivot. How about putting on your own show? Getting several of your artist friends together, renting a small space, and see what comes of it? The press and success of independently taking initiative could very well lead to interest from galleries, all because you took a fresh, creative, and self-reliant approach instead of endlessly sending cold emails to galleries that are already inundated with artist emails.

If you’re struggling to make sales online, maybe the vertical you’re currently using isn’t right for you. Maybe Instagram doesn’t serve your art as well as setting up at the local farmer’s market will.

Keep pushing yourself to find new avenues to pursue and pushing your art further into the world. You are your work’s greatest advocate, so give it all you’ve got.

Trust in the Universe

Few things can be more frustrating than hearing well-meaning friends try to comfort us by saying, “everything happens for a reason.” But the truth is, if you begin to trust that certain opportunities fell through for you because even better ones are in store, it can be tremendously helpful in learning to handle setbacks with grace.

When you see every “no” as simply moving you one step closer to a “yes,” you stop seeing closed doors and start seeing signposts leading you further down the correct path.

Disappointment is natural, even some anger and sadness is to be expected. But the sooner you can learn to put these feelings down and shift your perspective into one of trust, hope, and gratitude, you’ll be more than ready to try again when the next—and better—opportunity comes your way.

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Author Bio

Alia Sinclair is a writer, musician, and Editor-in-Chief of Patchwork Mosaic, an online magazine for creatives. An avid art enthusiast, Alia lives on the West Coast with her ever-increasing library of books.

The post A Rejection Just Shortens the Path to Yes appeared first on Art Business News.

If you are ready to gain some guidance on adopting an entrepreneurial mindset, then this article will be useful to you.

Be willing to step outside of your comfort zone

Despite the face-value obviousness of this point, the reason there are many more start-up creative businesses than successful long-term creative ones is that artists tend to remain a lot more humble than they should. Self-promotion can be very daunting and may feel as if you are being too proud or boastful about your work. Don’t fall into the trap of being overly humble: taking risks and putting yourself ­out there is the only way to get seen.

“One of the main ingredients of your own success is the promotion you will have from others. The support you receive from others can only appear once you show consistency in your work and showcasing abilities,” says Tracey M. Wise, art writer at Australia 2 Write and Next CourseWork.

Be on an ongoing journey

If you imagine yourself walking towards your successful career as an art entrepreneur, see each step forward as getting you closer to your goal. Also see each time you pause, or breathe out and enjoy the scenery as a time for self-reflection. There is no better life coach or mentor than yourself. A positive mindset is only half the story – you also need to regularly review your goals and what you are doing towards them. If you find they are not aligned, perhaps your goals no longer serve you, or perhaps your actions aren’t being as productive as they should. Perhaps you set yourself too many goals, or too few. There are many reasons to self-reflect.

Also take the time to figure out how you like to work. Do you prefer to feel challenged or relaxed? Do you work better during the day or night; alone or with collaborative effort? The more questions you ask yourself, the more you will find there is to ask. Many opportunities are out-of-reach because you aren’t self-reflecting.

Try not to fall into the traps of self-shame, self-doubt, and ignorance towards skills you have convinced yourself you can do well, though actually need to develop.

Decide how to invest in your business wisely

Expenses and investments are not the same things. Expenses in your business won’t actually contribute to your ability to make sales, and instead, drain you of your cash flow. There are some necessary expenses, such as materials and equipment, though investing in your business is a much more successful way to help your business.

The majority of the founders of start-ups will make the mistake of taking everything on themselves. It is not possible to do everything yourself! Your business will need the skills and expertise of others. However, use tools such as spreadsheets to figure out what your business can afford. Making unwise and radical investments will put you at a greater loss.

There are probably more resources around you than you realize, such as website developers, photographers, email marketing services, personal assistants, and coaching programs. Assessing and utilizing the true advantage of these will increase how many options your business has to move forwards.

Recognize the present similarities between most artists and most entrepreneurs

Both intuition and creativity are great characteristics when managing any form of business. The ability to go with your gut instinct is the same characteristic that is most responsible for the development of the greatest and most successful businesses in the world. On the other hand, intuition is also responsible for some of the best artwork in the world.

Creativity, in reference to originality, is the skill of developing solutions to problems that surface. In this way, challenges and setbacks are blessings in disguise: they force you to overcome and adapt. Without a steady level of competition with yourself, you miss out on continual self-development, and such, the development of your business.

Stop micro-managing!

Delegating tasks to others who support and work in your developing business will find it overwhelming if you constantly monitor and modulate the work they produce. Allow yourself to give tasks to others to reduce how much time you waste, therefore increasing how much time you have to actually create art and make sales. This will in turn give you the room to produce the quantity of art that is necessary to be noticed.

Though quality is overall more important than quantity for making large sales, quantity is more important for making impactful sales and getting known. If you aren’t known widely, people won’t buy your product – simple!

Allow yourself to make mistakes comfortably

We live in a perfectionist culture: it’s not your fault and it’s not mine either. What can be your fault, however, is allowing the culture to be your downfall. The most successful business people and artists alike understand that striving for constant self-improvement is a great attribute to have, though allowing themselves to become crazy because of it is one of the worst ideas to have. On the other hand, it’s a good thing to let your business take over a large portion of your life. It may seem that you are becoming obsessed with your goals, which in the best-case scenario means that they become very successful.

“Use your best skills and characteristics to their fullest potential. Become excited about your current and future successes!” Says Rebecca L. Buser, business blogger at 1 Day 2 Write and Brit Student.

Overall, you can be successful on this journey to becoming an artist-entrepreneur! Like any other long-term goal, it will require both dedication and patience. Allow yourself to become a better version of yourself.

About the author:

Michael Dehoyos is a content marketer and editor at Phd Kingdom and Academic brits He assists companies in their marketing strategy concepts, and contributes to numerous sites and publications. Also, he is a writer at Origin Writings.

The post Be a Successful Artist Entrepreneur with the Right Mindset appeared first on Art Business News.