Some random thoughts for creative outsiders when your creative work gets rejected.

When creative work is rejected, an artist has to think through whether it was because he or she didn’t probe deep enough, avoided territory that was scary, that might offend, or because the work probed too deep, because it alienated those concerned about protecting their comfort zone, them that lives in the straight and narrow, who want to be reassured that they made the right decisions avoiding risk in life, by avoiding the juice of life. As an artist, you’ve got to accept that them that dwells in the Wasteland is not gonna like ya.

In every work of genius, we recognize our own rejected thoughts.
-       Ralph Waldo Emerson

 The art genius has the courage of his or her conviction. Art geniuses work at their craft out of a compelling need to express something. They take the same thoughts as you and me, but they act on them. The genius was as much in their courage and discipline as in their intellect.

Genius believes in the power of dreams, in the interior world, in the mystery of the universe.

In every madman, there is a misunderstood genius.
-       Antonin Artaud

Or is it that every genius is a misunderstood madman, a man who didn’t care much what others thought? He (or she) was in search of deeper truths. The mad genius believed that the work would ultimately transcend the market’s rejection. They don’t teach that at the Harvard Business School.

Your inner momentum needs time to displace the market’s ambivalence and inertia. And you need to understand the marketing potential of the new platforms.

If you place your work at the mercy of the marketplace — the literary agents, the book publishers, the art galleries, etc. — you will encounter people who are experts in what is selling, what has recently sold. They are also experts at determining the minimum amount of effort and money to put behind your work in relation to the minimum expected result. In other words, they are experts in giving the minimum in order to get the minimum acceptable result. Unless you are an established, best-selling author or artist, you’ll work with drones, people going through the motions without thought or creativity.

If your work is different than what’s recently sold, if your work is truly unique, then expect rejection, especially at first. The list of bestsellers that were rejected hundreds of times before publication is legendary (J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance  come immediately to mind). In painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon received such a angry response from critics and fellow artists alike when first shown that Picasso hid it away for years. Ultimately though it changed art. Crowds booed Bob Dylan’s early electric folkrock music including "Like A Rolling Stone," now regarded by many as one of the greatest rock songs ever written. Etc., etc., etc. 

We live now in a different marketplace, and one that doesn’t rely on intermediaries. Print-on-demand self-publishing, the internet, YouTube, Amazon, and a dozen successful art sites (Etsy, Saatchi, Imagekind, etc.) offer opportunities to artists (in all art forms including painting, novels, poetry) with unique work — opportunities that have never before existed. All of these platforms favor the artist, the creator, and not the publisher, gallery or agent.

Still, expect struggle, expect a long, gradual process — probably years — before your unique work achieves market viability. Your inner momentum needs time to displace the market’s ambivalence and inertia.

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The above is excerpted from the new Heron Dance Art Journal, Nurturing The Song Within, to be published in the next few days. The journal explores creativity as above, but also the beauty and mystery of the natural world, and gratitude for the gift of life, and the use of journaling as a tool in understanding one’s life.

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Below, an example two-page spread from the upcoming Heron Dance journal, Nurturing The Song Within.

Pre-order the Collector’s Edition printed by a high-end art book printer here.
These are only available on pre-order. There are now a couple of payment options including four equal monthly installments.
After publication, these journals will be printed by a print-on-demand printer at the same price.

You can download a PDF of the two-page spread below by clicking on the image. It does take a few seconds to download and gain resolution.