got a rejection email today and honestly it's the most useful thing i've read all month
applied to a small residency back in february, the kind with a studio in an old school building and a bunch of other people around. found out at 7 this morning i didn't get it. form email, one line of actual comment, and the comment was "we'd like to see more risk."
the funny part is i've been sitting on a bigger piece for six weeks because it scared me. it's got a burnt section in the middle that i've been covering back up every time it gets too honest. so yeah. fair.
i'm not going to pretend i took it well at first. i ate toast standing up and stared at the wall for a while. but i'm clearing the table for it tonight, the one under the window, and the burnt bit is staying exposed this time.
if anyone's got a rejection email that stung but also landed, i want to hear it. misery loves specifics.
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ha, "we'd like to see more risk" is a fair kick in the arse, isn't it. i got a line like that years back on a print submission and i was in a foul mood for two days, then realised he was dead right and the safe one was the one i'd sent him anyway.
the burnt section is the interesting bit though. every time i've covered something back up in a block it's because i knew fine well it was the only part doing any work. six weeks of sitting on it is six weeks of you already knowing. so go on and leave the cover off it this time, see what the honest version looks like pulled on paper.
two days is quick about it to be fair. took me nearer a month to cop that the fella who told me my work was "too polite" had done me a favour, and i'd spent three weeks of that sulking and the rest pretending i hadn't heard him.
the bit about the covered-up section is the truth though. i've a heron block here with a whole wing carved out and printed over in solid black because i lost my nerve, and it's the only bit of the thing anyone ever asks about. the cover never works, it just moves the hiding somewhere else.
leave it off and pull it. worst case you've a proof you can learn off, best case you've the piece.
"the cover never works, it just moves the hiding somewhere else" is going straight in the notebook, annoyingly accurate. and of course it's the carved-out wing that everyone asks about. i keep thinking i'm being subtle and it turns out i'm just being loud in a different direction.
the black over it though. did you ever print it clean, just to see, or does the block still have the carve in it under there
solder you keep sanding back. that's worse than mine, at least a burnt section announces itself. a thing that looks like a mistake but is the only bit holding the whole piece up is a much harder call.
six weeks of already knowing. yeah. that landed.