It’s an exciting week where I live! The Eastern Idaho Fair is going on and everyone is either involved in the fair or excited to go and have some fun there.. A major part of the fair for me has always been the Fine Art Competition. Even when I was a child I would enter my artwork into the fair, Back then I was entering into the Western Idaho Fair because I lived in Meridian Idaho.
This year I entered into the professional Division and was surprised to see that I won Best of Show! There was a lot of great work there so this was obviously a confidence booster for me. Sometimes it’s nice to get that little bit of validation that your work is worth something.

I also encouraged my high school students to enter the fair but with all of my trying only one of them entered. And her work looked great! I was proud to see it hanging on the wall with all the other artwork. Another former student entered her painting as well. I was a proud teacher!
Although my pride in my students was great that night I was still sad that not more of them entered. It was hard for me to understand why they wouldn’t enter their artwork into the fair, its fun and who knows… They might win something.
It occurred to me that the word might was what was getting in the way. To many of them were afraid of what would happen if they entered the fair and they didn’t win anything. Their hopes and dreams could be crushed!
It might sound a little silly but those are the kinds of things that my students would say. “My dreams could be crushed” or even “I won’t win anything” or “I’m not good enough”… Wow! what self damaging language comes out of some of my students mouths. Many of them feel like they couldn’t stand the rejection of not winning. This thought had never crossed my mind. I was lucky enough in my younger years to have parents who encouraged me to enter my artwork in the fair and other art shows. Till this day I think is is a great thing for anyone to do. So here it goes… My list of reasons more artists (including armature artists) should enter art shows.

1) Confidence building

It feels great being in art shows and especially wining art shows. My 8 year old daughter also entered the fair. She won a third place ribbon for one of her coil pot bowls she made. You should have seen the look on her face when she saw the ribbon. She was so excited. Yes, I know that this is not always the case.There have been other shows where she hasn’t won and it always is a little sad to see the disappointment on her face. However we continue to encourage her to enter and now that she has won all of those other disappointments have been washed away.

Sometimes you don’t win, but often times other confidence builders will happen like someone might compliment you on a piece or even offer to buy it. This has happened to me at times. There have been shows where I didn’t win any awards but I did sell some of my work which was a better award anyway.

2) Teaches you to deal with rejection

Art shows are a great way to teach you to deal with rejection, especially a show like the fair. I mean this in the best way possible. Some shows have a pretty hefty entry fee and even after you pay the entry fee you may or may not get into the show. The state fair isn’t like that. The entry fees for state fairs are usually small and if you pay the fee you get to be in the show. If you don’t win something then you can learn to deal with that at a relatively small price.
I learned this lesson when I was in high school. There was one year I entered work into my high school art show. I was an underclassman and thought I was pretty hot stuff. The judge loved my work and I received numerous awards for the things that I had entered. The next year I entered work which I thought was better then the previous year and I didn’t win anything. It hurt a bit but I learned that you can’t win them all and that not every judge is the same. Sometimes there are judges that just don’t like your style of work, and that’s okay. If the judge doesn’t like figurative work but has a thing for abstract then you can bet that I wont do very well at that art show. That is just the way it is.
Over the years I have dealt with many rejections. I have also had many wins. More recently I have felt a surge of energy after every rejection making me try harder for something else. The rejections also have made the wins feel even better.

3) It gives you something to work towards.

There are some shows that I create work specifically for that show. Its fun to have a show date coming up to encourage you to create more and better work. It gives you a target to shoot for. My daughter who I previously mentioned will now be making sure that she creates something really awesome so she can enter it into the fair next year.

I met an 11 year old girl at the fair and I could see the disappointment in her face at not winning anything. She had entered three things that were really quite well done. I don’t know if what I told her helped her feel any better but I tried to encourage her as much as I could. I told her good job for being so brave to enter her work into the fair. I told her that most of my high school students were too scared to enter and that she is awesome for even entering. I told her to keep up the good work and keep entering. Her work will get better and better and she will win some years and loose others but that it is fun and exciting to be in a show weather you win or loose. The important thing is that you tried.
I hope that if you are reading this then you will be encouraged to go out on a limb and try something you have been to scared to do. It might be an Art Show like I have talked about here or it might be something else completely unrelated. Either way I hope my words have helped.
I would like to know what you think. Do you have any stories about entering shows that you would like to share? Have you had a confidence boost or a crushed dream? let me know in the comments below.