Unfortunately yours was not selected…

Okay, so everyone is congratulating each other and high-fiving on facebook about who got accepted to the PSoA Members show.

You entered, but got the “it was a tough decision…” letter and, while you’re happy for those that got in, you’re also a little sick of hearing about it, and wish you were one of them. You have probably shut facebook off a couple times already, but like a nasty scab under a bandage, you have to check on it again and again.

That was me last year during the Members Only announcements…and two years before that too…and during the BP Portrait Award announcements every year…and during the Outwin Boochever announcements every year…and every year during the PSA International Portrait Competition announcements…do I really have to go on? Its depressing me a little now.

You know you’re not alone, but no one announces their rejections on facebook. In fact, this year they had a record breaking 804 entries, with only 115 acceptances.

If you want to the winning placements, they are now on the Portrait Society of America Website. 

And if you want to see all the accepted works; Place, Merit and Honorable Mention, they are on the Portrait Society Facebook Page , each category with its own album. 


The quotes I’ve collected below have made me feel better at times, so maybe they’ll help you too…and if these don’t work, there’s always chocolate…and/or wine.

Take heart and keep making art
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“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”( from Michael Jordan)


“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”. (Winston Churchill)


“Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.” (Randy Pausch)


“To live in the presence of great truths and eternal laws, to be led by permanent ideals—that is what keeps a man patient when the world ignores him, and calm and unspoiled when the world praises him.” (from Honore De Balzac)


“When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.” (from Helen Keller)


“No biggie…I’m going to enter the PSoA International Show…deadline is March 4th!” (you can say this one)