Most artists experience failure, many don't know how to use it

I had my first real, gut-wrenching experience of artistic failure at 18. As the gifted, arty kid at school, I entered adulthood wet behind the ears with accolades and participation certificates, sheltered from the brutal reality of the art industry with it’s no nonsense gatekeeping and glass ceilings. Mostly, I was still a kid with but a shred of the expertise of my more masterful peers.

So there I was, freshly 18, with a rejection letter from the Lester Prize - Australia’s richest prize for portraiture. Though I knew I was suddenly competing in a new pool of older, more skillful fish than I, I still cried on my parents couch that day. And I cried again when I was rejected the next year, and the next.

Of all professions, I truly believe artists experience failure most often and in a way that hurts the most.