Rejection has a good side

I was bemoaning the fact that I had three pieces tied up in a jury process preventing me from adding them to an exhibition, but today's letter resolved that problem.  None of the pieces were chosen and I now have free rein to do as I want with them.

There's always a twinge of regret when a rejection letter arrives, but in this case its rather more relief as I needed the pieces to bulk out the body of work.  Also I am waiting for another response from another two juried competitions.  One I should hear from sooner, the other not til 2011.  The waiting time is always the killer for me.  Part of me wants to know right away and the longer I wait, the more opportunity presents itself for the very piece being juried but I just have to put the ideas to one side and pretend that piece doesn't exist until I hear officially.

Rejection is accepted more easily now than it was many years ago.  The pieces aren't as precious to me so I don't take it so personally when an organization doesn't accept them.  I know there are more still in my head that will have their moment in the future.

Meanwhile, I am making more decisions around final pieces for the gyotaku.  This ocean perch on a green Dainshu chiri paper appealed to me.  I've added the eye using mostly coloured pencil with a touch of watercolour to add depth.  On Japanese papers, the sharper tip of the pencil roughens the paper til you're eventually just moving fibres around instead of applying pigment, so a light wash of watercolour helps add depth.

Of course, I don't have a frame to fit it here.  That's always the way when I like something, so if I want to include it, I'll need to have it custom framed.  It may sit for a day or two as I have a few other prints of these perch that are in the running too.

However, tomorrow its off to the printer to get some reproductions of a salt cod print done and perhaps a workshop poster if I can get that completed tonight.  The prints will be thank you gifts for people who have helped me along the way, with some original prints for those who really went out of their way for me. I wish I had an illustrator's mind set when it comes to creating posters, I seem to make the most boring ones imaginable.