Blog / 2026 / How Artists Deal with Rejection

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Reactions to rejection vary.

There are people who lash out, blaming the individual who made them feel rejected and trying to make them feel hurt too.

There are people who go into protective mode, hiding from whatever caused them to feel rejected—avoiding it.

And then there are those who try to metabolize the feedback while also taking into account its context. These people want to understand where the rejection comes from, both what they might have done to receive such a critique and also how the critic’s own life experiences shape their opinions. The rejection metabolizers know that when we’re rejected, a lot of time it really isn’t about something we did. It’s about the differences between ourselves and other people.

Artists can obviously react to rejection in any number of ways, but—and this is important—anyone who’s making art and putting it out into the world with any regularity has managed to overcome a lot of rejection without lashing out or shutting down.

In other words, artists are a little like bison. As herbivores, these creatures are prey—they’re vulnerable—but they’re also huge and so solid. Bison cannot easily be moved from their journey, even by those attacking them.

It’s hard to start out as an artist in part because it’s difficult to deal with the rejection you face early on, as you’re just figuring out what sort of work you want to make. But it’s also hard to keep being an artist—to keep facing rejection for years and years. Because every artist continues to face rejection, even as they also have success. It’s just in the nature of being vulnerable in the way that artists are.

Anyone who’s sharing their creativity with the world is a star. A bison-like star!