Why Rejection Hurts—and What to Do With It

Savvy Painter Podcast with Antrese Wood

Antrese Wood

Artinterviews, Fineart, Pleinair, Cityscapes, Arts, Painting, Antrese, Self-improvement, Education, Interviews, Oilpainting, Artmarketing, Culture, Landscapepainting, Art, Artistinterviews, Businessofart, Howtosellart, Visual Arts

4.8 • 891 Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, we’re talking about something that every artist encounters—but few talk about openly: rejection. Whether it’s a juried show, a gallery application, or simply putting your work on social media, the fear of hearing “no” often holds artists back in big ways. But here’s the truth: rejection isn’t the problem. It’s the meaning we attach to it that creates so much pain and paralysis. Antrese breaks down: Why rejection feels so intense—and why that’s totally normalThe science behind the physi...

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, welcome back to the Savvy Painter Podcast. I'm your host, Antrice Wood, and today we are diving into something that comes up a lot for artists.
0:11.7	We're going to talk about rejection. If you've ever avoided applying to a show, reaching out to a gallery, or even just sharing your work online because you
0:22.6	were afraid of hearing no, or more specifically, you were afraid of how it would make you feel.
0:28.4	This episode is for you. Let's start with the truth. Rejection hurts, but it's not dangerous.
0:36.8	It feels dangerous, but that feeling, that's not coming from the no itself. It's coming from the story that your brain tells you about that no.
0:46.8	So today, we're going to talk about what really happens in your brain and body when you face rejection, how to move through it and why doing it in
0:55.5	community changes everything. So let's go. Here's what I see a lot in Gros Studio. Artists will say,
1:03.4	I don't want to apply to that because I cannot handle the rejection right now. But when we dig in,
1:08.8	it's not the rejection itself that's so painful. It's the meaning
1:13.6	that we attach to it. Things like, they didn't like my work, so I must not be any good. Or if they say no,
1:21.9	it means that I will never make it as an artist. Or worse, for some people, the idea that if they say no, it means I
1:31.4	just wasted all of my time making that painting, submitting the work, doing all the things.
1:38.1	These thoughts sting. And they sting because we so often will mistake them for facts.
1:46.2	And then we react to that idea as if it is a fact.
1:50.6	But those thoughts are just thoughts.
1:54.5	They are just words floating through our head and they are completely optional.
2:00.8	Even though I know they often really, really feel true.
2:08.1	But the rejection itself, it's just a no.
2:12.7	It's just data.
2:15.1	But here's what happens.
2:17.0	We hear the no or we read the no, we experience the no, we get a no. And then we instantly create all these stories around it. And usually those stories are pretty cruel. They are a reflection of our worst fears about ourselves.
2:40.5	So in our imagination, the second that the juror saw that piece, they instantly said no.
	...

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