By F. Lennox Campello, Artwork above: 1970s Abstract by Campello

Recently I was reading the sad online posting by a local DMV artist whose work had been rejected from a juried competition.

She was clearly devastated by the rejection, and many fellow artists (including myself) jumped in to send her cyberspace hugs and words of advice.

One of the key weapons that artists must develop in order to salvage their creativity, morale, and wits is thick skin. And most artists usually learn really quickly to develop that thick skin and also learn to graciously accept malicious criticism, constructive criticism, and negative criticism.

Art is subjective – not objective, and thus why to some eyes, a work of art is great, while the same work, to other eyes, is a piece of dreck.

Artists also need thick skin when it comes to art criticism – I believe that it was Andy Warhol who noted that any published criticism was good, and that bad criticism was even better.

Another quizzical thing to me, is how fond people who are not artists, are about giving advice to artists.

Along that vein, perhaps one of the biggest voids between art critics and the other side of the fine arts equation (artists, gallerists, and curators), is that most art critics seem to be fond of always giving the other side advice, when they should just stick to criticism… right?

This advice is generally not only usually wrong (except when I give it – of course!), but often naive to the extreme of being laughable. Such as the critic who once wondered online why most galleries didn’t publish nice fancy catalogs with each exhibition, and recommended that gallerists did this in order to be taken seriously by art critics.

Gallerists who read this advice immediately filed it in the round file while at the same time they try to balance the gallery books using magic in order to pay all their bills on time.

But I digress… the point here is that artists need to understand that being rejected is always unpleasant, but part of the “game.”

You can also “game the game” – by that I mean the opposite of being rejected is when an artist is not only accepted into a good juried art exhibition/show, but also then the juror awards the artist one of the prizes.

My advice?  Now there’s a pretty decent chance that this particular juror at some level connects with your artwork – this means that you stalk the juror and the next time that he/she is a juror somewhere else for a different show, there’s a pretty good chance that they’d react positively to your work again.

See my logic?

New topic – some memories from the last few decades as an artist, curator, critic and gallerist:

– The time that a couple came into the gallery, he complaining of the price of an omelet at the Original Pancake House, and then he buying out the entire exhibition!

– The artist who complained because we were selling too much of the artist’s work.

– The young man, who while looking at black and white infrared photographs of Scotland actually asked if everything in Scotland was really black and white.

– The hundreds of people through the years who stand at the front of the gallery door and ask how much does it cost to come in.

– The photographer who shipped a massive photograph, framed under glass in a flimsy cardboard box without any protection and then almost had convulsions when informed that his work had arrived nearly demolished.

– The painter who shipped his small painting is a massive wooden crate meriting inclusion in the Fort Knox Hall of Fame, and paid more for shipping than the painting’s price.

– The joy and pride caused by the first time that a museum acquired one of my works.

– The guy who knocked a framed piece down, broke the glass in the fall, and then said: “It was broken before it fell.”

– The famous multi-millionaire who (after attempting to haggle for a photograph selling for $300), said: “If I have this delivered to Great Falls, can I save on the sales tax?”

– The California collector who bought an $11,000 painting on the Internet, sight unseen.

– The super rich artist-wanna-be who always shows up at a crowded opening, wants you to look at his or her photographs of an African safari and asks: “What does one have to do to sell stuff in this store?”

– The delight in the face and eyes of an art student making his or her first gallery sale ever.

– The first time that we got a review in a national art magazine.

– The first time that a show sold out before it actually opened up to the public.

– The people who ask every once in a while: “Does anyone actually, ever buy art?” And the many times that I actually ponder the same question.

– The time that the really expensive magazine ad had the wrong opening date.

– The local DC area museum curator who never comes down to DC galleries, but who acquired one of our artist’s works while it was on loan to another gallery in another city.

– The first time that a museum asked to borrow work for an exhibition.

– The collector who said on the phone: “Just pick one of her paintings that you’d think I would like and put a dot on it.”

– The first time that one of our artists received a review in the New York Times.

– The time that the city fathers of Washington, DC wanted to prohibit galleries from serving wine at the openings.

– The first time that a museum in another country acquired work by one of our artists.

– The first time that a museum asked for one of our exhibitions to travel to the museum.

– The rich “artist” who wanted us to exhibit her really ugly paintings; each one boasted to have over $60,000 of precious stones embedded into the thick, impasto paint.

– The time that a collector wanted to buy a nude painting of a man, but wanted the artist to paint over the genitalia.

– The first time that one of our exhibitions was featured on television.

– The first time that we got a review in an international art magazine.

– The dozens and dozens of “collectors” from Nigeria who email us everyday and who want to buy everything in our “art store” if only we send them our banking details so that they can wire the payments to it.

– The invited curator who “curated” a show of mostly his friends and colleagues.

About the Author: F. Lennox Campello’s art news, information, gallery openings, commentary, criticism, happenings, opportunities, and everything associated with the global visual arts scene with a special focus on the Greater Washington, DC area has been a premier source for the art community for over 20 years. Since 2003, his blog has been the 11th highest ranked art blog on the planet with over SIX million visitors.