Rejection - it hurts! I’ve lost count of the applications I have made over the years. Ninety percent of them I have been rejected from, making the ten percent acceptances very sweet.

This week I had been waiting to hear if I was in an exciting exhibition I had made work specifically for. I was very pleased with it and thought it might have a chance. The prizes were fabulous: first prize was an artist residency, second prize a solo show in a regional gallery and third prize, cash.

I would have been happy with any of those! Unfortunately, so many other artists thought so too and applied, so the competition was stiff. I did ten drafts of the artist statement to accompany the work, honing it down and refining it into the short eighty word limit.

Alas and alack this opportunity was not for me, or for many of my artist friends who applied to be in it as well and were also rejected. Good to be in great company!

When I first started my art practice, I used to apply for all kinds of crazy opportunities. The one I most remember was an artist residency in a bus. What was I thinking! Needless to say I didn’t get that one either.

I am however, an eternal optimist. Every year I create a new file in my computer called Applications with the year on it. Inside that I have folders for every exhibition, opportunity or artist residency I apply to. These folders each contain the artists statement and images that I send and a copy of the filled in form if there is one to download.

I also have an excel sheet with applications and dates for every year. There are columns for title, size, medium, year date and when I emailed the application and whether it was accepted or rejected. So many rejections!

I have learned to move on from rejections and keep going. Not to take it personally but to know that I gave it my best shot. I feel grateful for having the capacity to make this artwork , even though it was rejected, as it got me back into my studio after my knee operation.

Enjoying the process meant I kept going and have created a series of small 20 x 20 cm cyanotype collages which will be in a Christmas exhibition locally. On balance, the effort was worth it and not wasted. I will now adapt this rejected artwork into something else and see what comes of it. Who knows, it might get accepted into another exhibition. Fingers crossed!